The distribution of the literature based on its source.
\r\n\t
",isbn:"978-1-83962-718-7",printIsbn:"978-1-83962-717-0",pdfIsbn:"978-1-83962-754-5",doi:null,price:0,priceEur:0,priceUsd:0,slug:null,numberOfPages:0,isOpenForSubmission:!0,hash:"4df95c7f295de7f6003e635d9a309fe9",bookSignature:"Dr. Yajuan Zhu, Dr. Qinghong Luo and Dr. Yuguo Liu",publishedDate:null,coverURL:"https://cdn.intechopen.com/books/images_new/8969.jpg",keywords:"Water Cycle, Water Use Strategy, Vegetation Dynamics, Plant Community, Precipitation, Carbon Emission, Soil Respiration, Autotrophic Respiration, Algae Crust, Wind, Temperature, Vegetation Stability",numberOfDownloads:null,numberOfWosCitations:0,numberOfCrossrefCitations:null,numberOfDimensionsCitations:null,numberOfTotalCitations:null,isAvailableForWebshopOrdering:!0,dateEndFirstStepPublish:"January 26th 2021",dateEndSecondStepPublish:"February 23rd 2021",dateEndThirdStepPublish:"April 24th 2021",dateEndFourthStepPublish:"July 13th 2021",dateEndFifthStepPublish:"September 11th 2021",remainingDaysToSecondStep:"a month",secondStepPassed:!1,currentStepOfPublishingProcess:2,editedByType:null,kuFlag:!1,biosketch:"Dr. Zhu holds a Ph.D. in Ecology and is currently an Associate Research Professor at the Chinese Academy of Forestry at the Institute of Desertification Studies, she has led a number of national projects while working there.",coeditorOneBiosketch:"Dr. Luo holds a Ph.D. in Physical Geography and is currently a Research Professor at the Institute of Afforestation and Sand Control, Xinjiang Academy of Forestry. She is a holder of several technological patents in her area of research.",coeditorTwoBiosketch:"Dr. Liu holds a Ph.D. in Ecology and is currently an Assistant Professor at the Institute of Desertification Studies, Chinese Academy of Forestry. He has published several international works that have been recognized.",coeditorThreeBiosketch:null,coeditorFourBiosketch:null,coeditorFiveBiosketch:null,editors:[{id:"180427",title:"Dr.",name:"Yajuan",middleName:null,surname:"Zhu",slug:"yajuan-zhu",fullName:"Yajuan Zhu",profilePictureURL:"https://mts.intechopen.com/storage/users/180427/images/system/180427.jpg",biography:"Dr. Yajuan Zhu obtained her Bachelor's degree in Agriculture from Northwest Agriculture and Forestry University in 2002 and PhD in Ecology from Chinese Academy of Sciences in 2007. She was a postdoctoral fellow working on the topic of land desertification control in the Research Institute of Forestry, Chinese Academy of Forestry, followed by her appointment as an Assistant Professor at the Institute of Desertification Studies, Chinese Academy of Forestry and currently she is an Associate Research Professor at the same institute. She is a Master's supervisor with interests in plant ecology in deserts, biodiversity, stable isotope ecology, isohydrology and desertification control.",institutionString:"Chinese Academy of Forestry",position:null,outsideEditionCount:0,totalCites:0,totalAuthoredChapters:"1",totalChapterViews:"0",totalEditedBooks:"0",institution:{name:"Chinese Academy of Forestry",institutionURL:null,country:{name:"China"}}}],coeditorOne:{id:"340564",title:"Dr.",name:"Qinghong",middleName:null,surname:"Luo",slug:"qinghong-luo",fullName:"Qinghong Luo",profilePictureURL:"https://s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/intech-files/0033Y000032N5e7QAC/Profile_Picture_1605773886590",biography:"Dr. Qinghong Luo holds a Master's degree from Life Science College, Shihezi University (2006) and PhD in Physical geography from Xinjiang Ecology and Geography Institute, Chinese Academy of Sciences (2018). She was initially an Assistant Research Professor at Institute of Afforestation and Sand Control, Xinjiang Academy of Forestry, after an Associate Research Professor and currently she is a Research Professor at the same institute. Her research interests include desert vegetation dynamics, plant-soil interaction and desertification control among others. She has participated in a number of funded and non funded projects and is a holder of several patents.",institutionString:"Chinese Academy of Forestry",position:null,outsideEditionCount:0,totalCites:0,totalAuthoredChapters:"0",totalChapterViews:"0",totalEditedBooks:"0",institution:{name:"Chinese Academy of Forestry",institutionURL:null,country:{name:"China"}}},coeditorTwo:{id:"340567",title:"Dr.",name:"Yuguo",middleName:null,surname:"Liu",slug:"yuguo-liu",fullName:"Yuguo Liu",profilePictureURL:"https://s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/intech-files/0033Y000032N5hEQAS/Profile_Picture_1605774524148",biography:"Dr. Yuguo Liu obtained his bachelor's degree, majoring in Environmental Sciences from Inner Mongolia University in 2007 and doctoral degree, majoring in Ecology from Institute of Botany, the Chinese Academy of Sciences in 2013. He has been working as an Assistant Professor at the Institute of Desertification Studies, Chinese Academy of Forestry ever since. His research interests include ecological protection and restoration of fragile areas, and karst vegetation and rocky desertification control.",institutionString:"Chinese Academy of Forestry",position:null,outsideEditionCount:0,totalCites:0,totalAuthoredChapters:"0",totalChapterViews:"0",totalEditedBooks:"0",institution:{name:"Chinese Academy of Forestry",institutionURL:null,country:{name:"China"}}},coeditorThree:null,coeditorFour:null,coeditorFive:null,topics:[{id:"10",title:"Earth and Planetary Sciences",slug:"earth-and-planetary-sciences"}],chapters:null,productType:{id:"1",title:"Edited Volume",chapterContentType:"chapter",authoredCaption:"Edited by"},personalPublishingAssistant:{id:"194667",firstName:"Marijana",lastName:"Francetic",middleName:null,title:"Ms.",imageUrl:"https://mts.intechopen.com/storage/users/194667/images/4752_n.jpg",email:"marijana@intechopen.com",biography:"As an Author Service Manager my responsibilities include monitoring and facilitating all publishing activities for authors and editors. From chapter submission and review, to approval and revision, copyediting and design, until final publication, I work closely with authors and editors to ensure a simple and easy publishing process. I maintain constant and effective communication with authors, editors and reviewers, which allows for a level of personal support that enables contributors to fully commit and concentrate on the chapters they are writing, editing, or reviewing. I assist authors in the preparation of their full chapter submissions and track important deadlines and ensure they are met. I help to coordinate internal processes such as linguistic review, and monitor the technical aspects of the process. As an ASM I am also involved in the acquisition of editors. Whether that be identifying an exceptional author and proposing an editorship collaboration, or contacting researchers who would like the opportunity to work with IntechOpen, I establish and help manage author and editor acquisition and contact."}},relatedBooks:[{type:"book",id:"5962",title:"Estuary",subtitle:null,isOpenForSubmission:!1,hash:"43058846a64b270e9167d478e966161a",slug:"estuary",bookSignature:"William Froneman",coverURL:"https://cdn.intechopen.com/books/images_new/5962.jpg",editedByType:"Edited by",editors:[{id:"109336",title:"Prof.",name:"William",surname:"Froneman",slug:"william-froneman",fullName:"William Froneman"}],productType:{id:"1",chapterContentType:"chapter",authoredCaption:"Edited by"}},{type:"book",id:"1591",title:"Infrared Spectroscopy",subtitle:"Materials Science, Engineering and Technology",isOpenForSubmission:!1,hash:"99b4b7b71a8caeb693ed762b40b017f4",slug:"infrared-spectroscopy-materials-science-engineering-and-technology",bookSignature:"Theophile Theophanides",coverURL:"https://cdn.intechopen.com/books/images_new/1591.jpg",editedByType:"Edited by",editors:[{id:"37194",title:"Dr.",name:"Theophanides",surname:"Theophile",slug:"theophanides-theophile",fullName:"Theophanides Theophile"}],productType:{id:"1",chapterContentType:"chapter",authoredCaption:"Edited by"}},{type:"book",id:"3092",title:"Anopheles mosquitoes",subtitle:"New insights into malaria vectors",isOpenForSubmission:!1,hash:"c9e622485316d5e296288bf24d2b0d64",slug:"anopheles-mosquitoes-new-insights-into-malaria-vectors",bookSignature:"Sylvie Manguin",coverURL:"https://cdn.intechopen.com/books/images_new/3092.jpg",editedByType:"Edited by",editors:[{id:"50017",title:"Prof.",name:"Sylvie",surname:"Manguin",slug:"sylvie-manguin",fullName:"Sylvie Manguin"}],productType:{id:"1",chapterContentType:"chapter",authoredCaption:"Edited by"}},{type:"book",id:"3161",title:"Frontiers in Guided Wave Optics and Optoelectronics",subtitle:null,isOpenForSubmission:!1,hash:"deb44e9c99f82bbce1083abea743146c",slug:"frontiers-in-guided-wave-optics-and-optoelectronics",bookSignature:"Bishnu Pal",coverURL:"https://cdn.intechopen.com/books/images_new/3161.jpg",editedByType:"Edited by",editors:[{id:"4782",title:"Prof.",name:"Bishnu",surname:"Pal",slug:"bishnu-pal",fullName:"Bishnu Pal"}],productType:{id:"1",chapterContentType:"chapter",authoredCaption:"Edited by"}},{type:"book",id:"72",title:"Ionic Liquids",subtitle:"Theory, Properties, New Approaches",isOpenForSubmission:!1,hash:"d94ffa3cfa10505e3b1d676d46fcd3f5",slug:"ionic-liquids-theory-properties-new-approaches",bookSignature:"Alexander Kokorin",coverURL:"https://cdn.intechopen.com/books/images_new/72.jpg",editedByType:"Edited by",editors:[{id:"19816",title:"Prof.",name:"Alexander",surname:"Kokorin",slug:"alexander-kokorin",fullName:"Alexander Kokorin"}],productType:{id:"1",chapterContentType:"chapter",authoredCaption:"Edited by"}},{type:"book",id:"1373",title:"Ionic Liquids",subtitle:"Applications and Perspectives",isOpenForSubmission:!1,hash:"5e9ae5ae9167cde4b344e499a792c41c",slug:"ionic-liquids-applications-and-perspectives",bookSignature:"Alexander Kokorin",coverURL:"https://cdn.intechopen.com/books/images_new/1373.jpg",editedByType:"Edited by",editors:[{id:"19816",title:"Prof.",name:"Alexander",surname:"Kokorin",slug:"alexander-kokorin",fullName:"Alexander Kokorin"}],productType:{id:"1",chapterContentType:"chapter",authoredCaption:"Edited by"}},{type:"book",id:"57",title:"Physics and Applications of Graphene",subtitle:"Experiments",isOpenForSubmission:!1,hash:"0e6622a71cf4f02f45bfdd5691e1189a",slug:"physics-and-applications-of-graphene-experiments",bookSignature:"Sergey Mikhailov",coverURL:"https://cdn.intechopen.com/books/images_new/57.jpg",editedByType:"Edited by",editors:[{id:"16042",title:"Dr.",name:"Sergey",surname:"Mikhailov",slug:"sergey-mikhailov",fullName:"Sergey Mikhailov"}],productType:{id:"1",chapterContentType:"chapter",authoredCaption:"Edited by"}},{type:"book",id:"371",title:"Abiotic Stress in Plants",subtitle:"Mechanisms and Adaptations",isOpenForSubmission:!1,hash:"588466f487e307619849d72389178a74",slug:"abiotic-stress-in-plants-mechanisms-and-adaptations",bookSignature:"Arun Shanker and B. Venkateswarlu",coverURL:"https://cdn.intechopen.com/books/images_new/371.jpg",editedByType:"Edited by",editors:[{id:"58592",title:"Dr.",name:"Arun",surname:"Shanker",slug:"arun-shanker",fullName:"Arun Shanker"}],productType:{id:"1",chapterContentType:"chapter",authoredCaption:"Edited by"}},{type:"book",id:"878",title:"Phytochemicals",subtitle:"A Global Perspective of Their Role in Nutrition and Health",isOpenForSubmission:!1,hash:"ec77671f63975ef2d16192897deb6835",slug:"phytochemicals-a-global-perspective-of-their-role-in-nutrition-and-health",bookSignature:"Venketeshwer Rao",coverURL:"https://cdn.intechopen.com/books/images_new/878.jpg",editedByType:"Edited by",editors:[{id:"82663",title:"Dr.",name:"Venketeshwer",surname:"Rao",slug:"venketeshwer-rao",fullName:"Venketeshwer Rao"}],productType:{id:"1",chapterContentType:"chapter",authoredCaption:"Edited by"}},{type:"book",id:"4816",title:"Face Recognition",subtitle:null,isOpenForSubmission:!1,hash:"146063b5359146b7718ea86bad47c8eb",slug:"face_recognition",bookSignature:"Kresimir Delac and Mislav Grgic",coverURL:"https://cdn.intechopen.com/books/images_new/4816.jpg",editedByType:"Edited by",editors:[{id:"528",title:"Dr.",name:"Kresimir",surname:"Delac",slug:"kresimir-delac",fullName:"Kresimir Delac"}],productType:{id:"1",chapterContentType:"chapter",authoredCaption:"Edited by"}}]},chapter:{item:{type:"chapter",id:"73057",title:"Exploring the Project Risk Management: Highlighting the Soft Side of Project Management",doi:"10.5772/intechopen.93501",slug:"exploring-the-project-risk-management-highlighting-the-soft-side-of-project-management",body:'The last decade showed an industrial engineering growth toward nontraditional industries, particularly information technology (IT) and service-related industries that add considering technical, organizational, ethical, social, legal, and economic factors to the project management process [1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6]. Moreover, Industrial engineering is known for creating new systems to solve problems related to waste and inefficiency [3].
Project management is a critical area of knowledge in the Industrial engineering curriculum around the world [7]. An increasing number of private and public organizations start adopting formal principles of project management to develop and deliver new or improved products, services, and organizational process changes [8]. Further, many researchers investigate ways to develop and enhance the organization’s management practice [9].
The current studies of the project management process focus strongly on project risk management [10]. The current focus toward integration between partners, lean production, and outsourcing within industrial engineering has led to increase uncertainties and spike the number of accidents in the industry [11]. Consequently, organizations are giving more attention and value to risk management for improving project efficiency and effectiveness [12]. In [13, 14, 15, 16], risk management was described as a continuous process that supports the completion of the project on time, within budget, to the required quality, and with proper provision for the safety and environmental standards.
The relationship between risk management and project success or failure has been studied extensively in the last decades [10, 12, 14, 17, 18, 19, 20]. However, the risk management process shows a wide gap between theory and practice [21, 22]. The theory focuses on learning the techniques, planning methods, and formalities of project management while unintentionally overlook the nontraditional soft approach of management [2, 3, 22, 23, 24].
Effective project risk management obliges a wide-ranging involvement and integration across all segments of the project teams and their environment [25]. The results of previous studies that focused on risk management impact on the project success show that there are contradictions in the findings [10]. This contradiction can be explained by the tendency of the researchers to neglect aspects of uncertainty management such as considering the soft side of project management and its impact on the overall performance [10, 22].
The project management process can be categorized into hard and soft sides/approaches/skills [22, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31]. The hard skills focus on applying tools and techniques within project management and usually described as a science and comprise processes [26]. On the other hand, the soft skills are largely intangible, not associated with a deliverable or a concrete output, and enable working through and with people along with handling the associated human factors [22, 30].
The distinction between the concept of risk and uncertainty is still not fully clear in the context of project management [10, 32, 33]. In [34] the uncertainty was classified according to the project management techniques related to it into variation, foreseen uncertainty, unforeseen uncertainty, and chaos. Consequently, the management approach must be generated according to the types of uncertainties [10, 32, 34, 35]. In [10], it was suggested that the hard side of risk management covers the part that can manage variation and foreseen uncertainties while unforeseen uncertainties and chaos need other skills that related to the soft side.
The mere existence of accepted principles, well-defined processes, and widespread practice is not sufficient to guarantee success [24]. The hard skills just started to be viewed by many organizations more as baseline competencies rather than an additional practice that needed to improve the management process [27]. Moreover, the hard side should be considered as a necessity for the survival of the organization but not a sufficient tool in managing project risks [32]. Consequently, effective project management needs a balance between hard and soft skills [2, 28, 30].
Effective project risk management can be achieved depending on the involvement of the project team in the management process, which required a good understanding of the team environment [16]. Hence, the last decade presented a competitive global market creating a changing work environment that demands engineers who possess soft skills [36]. Further, the current risk management practices require investing more time and effort on the soft skills in order to advance the risk management process [10, 22, 24, 28, 37, 38].
This study aims to create a deeper understanding of the project risk management process by exploring the literate to investigate the potentials of integrating the hard and soft sides of risk project management. In addition, propose a broader conceptual framework for assessing and enhancing the project risk management process by including comprehensive risk management tools and techniques adopted from both sides.
This review covers academic publications based on theoretical and empirical findings on the concept of Risk Management. Literature was obtained through electronic searching strategy from major databases available to the researchers. The database used for this research includes but not limited to Web of Science, Science Direct, and Scopus. In other words, the database offers extensive studies on the risk project management process. However, relatively few studies were to be found concentrating on the soft skills acclimation and integration during the risk management process.
The initial search was broad enough to allow for as many results as possible including words that could identify as part of the risk management process. English was chosen to be the medium of communication. Therefore, publications that are not written in English were excluded. Moreover, this research focuses on the current research studies, studies that were published after 2005, unless if specific research offers a unique point of view or valuable contribution. Table 1 shows the distribution of the literature, which were included in this research, based on its sources of publications.
Literature source | Frequency |
---|---|
International Journal of Project Management | 9 |
International Conference on Industrial Engineering and Engineering Management. IEEE | 4 |
John Wiley & Sons, Inc. | 4 |
Journal of Loss Prevention in the Process Industries | 3 |
Risk Management | 2 |
Safety Science | 2 |
Project Management Journal | 2 |
Informing Science & Information Technology | 2 |
Scientia Iranica | 2 |
Engineering Management Journal | 1 |
European Journal of Engineering Education | 1 |
European Journal of Industrial Engineering | 1 |
PMI Global Congress EMEA Proceedings | 1 |
Association for Project Management (APM) | 1 |
International Conference on Industrial Engineering Theory | 1 |
International Journal of Industrial Engineering and Management (IJIEM) | 1 |
Project Management Institute | 1 |
Others | 45 |
The distribution of the literature based on its source.
Finally, qualitative and quantitative methods were used to analyze the review findings. The qualitative method presents a broad narrative of the findings from the literature, while the quantitative method was used in presenting the findings with tables and figures.
In [20], the risk management process was defined from the literature as a formal orderly process for systematically identifying, analyzing, and responding to risk events throughout the life of a project to obtain the optimum or acceptable degree of risk elimination or control and to achieve the project objectives. Further, project risk management is known as an integrative process, where it continues throughout the project life cycle [10, 16]. However, the intensity of the risk management process might decrease as the project progresses, but still, the threat of an unforeseen emergent risk should not be ruled out until the project is completely over [15]. Hence, this definition predominantly emphasizes the hard skills at the expense of soft skills [28].
There is a wide consensus on the indispensable elements for a risk management process [24]. This can be observed by the growing range of proficient tools and techniques, research base, and practical implementation across many industries [16, 24]. The literature offers several risk management standards, such as Risk Management Standard by the Institute of Risk Management (IRM); Project Risk Analysis and Management (PRAM) by the Association for Project Management (APM); the Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBoK®), Chapter 11, by Project Management Institute (PMI); and Risk Management—Principles and Guidelines by the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) [16, 39, 40, 41]. These standards have well-defined processes and widespread practices that originally cover the hard side of management with few exceptions. For instance, PRAM identifies the functional roles of the organization’s members during the risk planning process and considers it as an element of risk management.
The hard side of risk management demonstrates pre-specified approaches that have tools and techniques within four major process groups (identifying, analyzing, developing a response, and monitoring and controlling risks) and it is feasible if adequate information were available [10, 32, 39]. In the last decades, these process groups branched out from the original four groups into identification, qualitative analysis of risks, quantitative analysis of risk, risk response planning, and risk monitoring and control [12, 16].
In the early stages of the project, risk identification should be implemented, and any further process in risk management would be performed on these identified potential risks [42]. Therefore, all possible sources of potential risks must be identified as early as possible to help the organizations in choosing the suitable strategy [11]. One of the best methods to identify the risks is by developing a checklist categorizing the risks that might evolve during the project [18]. Also, historical records (lessons learned) and knowledge of risks from the experience-based of project personnel should be gathered and reviewed [12, 24, 43]. Further, the risks should be identified and classified by its nature and its potential impact on the current projects [16].
For risk identification, it seems that there is an agreement between researchers on the meta-classification approach, which identifies the risk factor based on three levels according to the project lifecycle environment [11, 18, 43, 44, 45]. First, the macro-level which consists of risks sourced externally (exogenously); second, the meso level which consists of risks sourced endogenously (self-developed) and project-related; and third, the micro-level which consists of risks found in the stakeholder’s relationships. The final step of the risk identification should be a risk category summary sheet by using the risk breakdown structure and checklist, wherein the participation of every individual in the management team would be integrated [16, 46].
The next stage of the risk management process is analyzing the risks. This stage, introduced by the Project Management Institute, includes qualitative risk analysis and quantitative risk analysis [16, 47]. As an intermediate process, it incorporates uncertainty quantitatively and qualitatively to evaluate the potential impact of risk [48]. In this stage, the risks with high probabilities, associated with a substantial impact on the project, should be focused on. Therefore, by the end of this stage, risk and uncertainty would be identified, then rating should be accomplished by forecasting the probability of occurrence and severity of the risk impact as well [45, 48, 49].
To estimate the probability, scholars note two main approaches: subjective judgment and objective analysis [48, 50]. Subjective judgment is done by using the experience and scrutiny to make a direct estimate which allows the management to use the logic, intuition, and experience or it can be driven by the means of an educated guess [16, 45, 46]. Objective analysis usually needs historical data. Sometimes this can be impractical since it is difficult to find comparable information [16]. Therefore, scalers such as one-in-ten and one-in-hundred are often used.
In the last decade, several methods and techniques have been developed to analyze risk on an industrial plant [50]. Risk analysis has three main requirements: recognize what to expect as output data, collect the available data, and then select a suitable method for the analysis [50]. There is an agreement that these methods can be categorized into two groups: qualitative and quantitative [16]. Further, it can be described as deterministic, probabilistic, and a combination of deterministic and probabilistic [50].
More than 60 methods and techniques were identified by the scholars, one of the most used methods to estimate the impact of the risks is the analytic hierarchy process (AHP) [51]. This technique breaks down the risks into small groups, constructs a hierarchical structure, compares the impact of each factor with other factors in the same group on a pairwise base, and allocates a comparison ratio to them. Hence, the same concept used between groups, and the final impact for each factor can be determined by multiplying the ratios. Table 2 shows some of the common methods and techniques used to analyze risks. Consequently, the estimates should be clarified and improved on an ongoing basis [45].
Classification of risk analysis methods | Methods of risk analysis | Literature |
---|---|---|
Quantitative | Accident hazard analysis (AHA) | [16, 50, 52, 53] |
Quantitative | Event tree analysis (ETA) | [50, 54, 55, 56] |
Quantitative | Monte Carlo analysis | [16, 50] |
Quantitative | Method organized systematic analysis of risk (MOSAR) | [50, 57] |
Quantitative | Optimal risk assessment (ORA) | [50, 58] |
Quantitative | Simple additive weighting (SAW) | [49, 59, 60] |
Qualitative | Failure mode effect analysis (FMEA) | [16, 50, 61, 62] |
Qualitative | Hazard and operability (HAZOP) | [50, 63, 64] |
Qualitative | Plant level safety analysis (PLSA) | [50, 65] |
Qualitative and quantitative | Technique for order preference by similarity to ideal solution (TOPSIS) | [49, 66] |
Qualitative and quantitative | Complex proportional assessment (COPRAS) | [49, 67] |
Risk analysis methodologies.
Quantifying the qualitative analysis can be performed in several ways. One of them is by integrating a specific qualitative method with the Fuzzy Analytic Process [47, 55, 61, 68]. In [47] the integration was illustrated by combining the traditional AHP with fuzzy logic by giving a fuzzy scale to the AHP crisp values. Following the fuzzy ranking technique, the fuzzy scales were converted to crisp numbers by considering α-cut and expert opinions to ensure the precision of the paired comparison, which lead to have criteria weight. By using an interval scale, a fuzzy decision is initiated to develop a matrix that would help in evaluating the risk, ranking the risks, and facilitating decision making. Typically, risk scales have a mapping matrix commonly used during the qualitative analysis [47, 51]. Further, there are five types of risk scales: nominal scales, interval scales, ordinal scales, calibrated ordinal scales, and ratio scales [51]. For instance, a nominal scale would identify the cost, schedule, and quality impact of the risk, assuming it occurs. Then, the dollar cost to remedy the problem(s) would be estimated. Finally, the product of probability and consequence (the cost to remedy) would quantify the risk to this particular project.
After analyzing the risk, risk response planning should be implemented. Hence, risk response planning was identified in [16] as “the process of developing options and determining actions to enhance the opportunities and reduce threats to the project objectives.” The level of risk impact is directly related to the effectiveness of the risk response process [16, 51, 69, 70]. However, the risk response process is rarely addressed in the current research related to risk management [69].
There is an agreement between scholars that the risk response process has four strategies [16, 51]. These strategies include avoidance, transfer, acceptance, and mitigation. In addition, contingency planning could be considered as a fifth strategy [70]. Moreover, it is also considered as part of the risk acceptance strategy [16]. During the risk response process, transfer and mitigation are the only strategies that involve a real investment and require budget allocation. Consequently, proactively defining an appropriate strategy would help to improve the project outcome and may result in obtaining additional benefits [51, 70].
As mentioned earlier, the project may evolve, the risks may change, the likelihood and severity of identified risks may change, new risks may emerge, identified risks may disappear, residual risks may arise, and new risks may emerge [13, 15, 16, 45, 51, 70]. Monitoring and controlling process include: tracking the identified risks, monitoring residual risks, identifying new risks, ensuring and assessing the effectiveness of the selected risk response strategies [15, 16, 51]. Therefore, the risk monitoring and controlling process are crucial for the risk management plan, and it should be developed proactively and continually during the project life cycle [16, 45, 51].
The hard side of project management is well documented between the scholars [16, 28, 39, 41, 45, 51]. In this study, several tools and techniques were investigated. In addition, this chapter would collect the most common and efficient tools and techniques to create a framework that would help to assess the risk management process and provide a guideline to ensure an effective risk management process.
The soft side of risk management embraces the process of managing and working with people, guaranteeing customer satisfaction with the purpose of retaining them, forming a favorable atmosphere for the project team to deliver high-quality products [31]. Further, creating a favorable atmosphere in the workplace would encourage the project team to deliver a high-quality product on time and within budget [26, 27, 30, 31]. The soft side of management aims to deliver such an atmosphere [9, 10, 31].
Several soft skills dimensions were discussed and identified by scholars for the management process [10, 22, 26, 30]. These soft skills include, but not limited to, communication skills, team-building skills, flexibility and creativity skills, leadership skills, the ability to manage stress and conflict, risk attitude, awareness of emotional intelligence, and navigating the organization’s culture [9, 10, 22, 26, 27, 30, 31].
In [10], the soft approach of risk management was categorized into context, strategic approach to risks and uncertainties; risk communication and information; attitude, assignment, and relationship with stakeholders; and crisis management. However, one of the most significant success factors for an effective risk management process is the one most often lacking, an appropriate and mature risk attitude [24, 28, 71]. Both researchers and practitioners agree that the attitude of individuals and organizations has a significant impact that influences whether the risk management process would deliver what it promises [24, 71]. Consequently, it is important to not ignore the fact, that risk management is undertaken by people, acting individually and in various groups [28, 71].
Attitude refers to what motivates the decision-maker to choose responses to different situations [72]. Furthermore, attitudes often might be deeply rooted and represent the core values of individuals or groups. However, the attitude represents choices that differ from personal characteristics (they are situational responses rather than natural preferences or traits) [28, 71, 72]. Risk attitude was defined as “chosen response to uncertainty that matters, influenced by perception” [71]. Therefore, risk attitude may differ depending on a range of different influences. These influences can be identified and understood, which introduce the possibility of managing them and modify the risk attitude [71, 72, 73].
An agreement between scholars can be observed, risk attitude exists on a spectrum [24]. The response to uncertainty has two dimensions: comfort level that is divided into risk-tolerant, risk-seeking, and risk addicted; and discomfort level that is divided into risk-tolerant, risk-averse, and risk paranoid [24, 71]. Hence, different risk attitudes would trigger different responses to the same situation, since attitude drives behavior.
Risk attitudes are usually adopted sub-consciously [24]. Several practitioners are accustomed to their risk attitude to the point where they behave as if there is no choice [73]. For instance, if they consider themselves with a risk-seeking or a risk-averse attitude, they would act accordingly without assessing the current situation. On the other hand, some organizations have learned to assess each situation internally, and then choose a risk attitude which is most appropriate to the current situation to offer the best chance of reaching the project objectives [71]. Consequently, risk attitude can be integrated with the risk response process group to ensure effective risk response planning.
In [71], a process that applies emotional literacy to assess risk attitude was proposed and can be used to modify the organization’s risk attitude when it is needed. Accordingly, emotional literacy is the process of using emotional intelligence components (recognize, understand, and appropriately express emotions) to manage the individual and group emotions to help them succeed.
The first step in assessing the risk attitude of an organization is assessing the individuals’ risk attitude toward a situation. The proximity toward risk and the influence that an individual has can be used as a proxy measure to assess the individual influence on the organization’s risk attitude [71, 74]. The literature provides several methods for stakeholder mapping that includes these two variables. For instance, in [74], the stakeholder cube method was discussed as a subjective assessment of the influence and interest of an individual and how it can affect their decision-making process.
The same concept can be used to assess the individual potential influence in a group. For example, an individual with high power (power can be gained through referent power, expert power, reward power, coercive power, and legitimate power [74, 75]) have a higher influence on the behavior and outcomes of a group [76]. At the same time, the proximity to a situation drives the individual to be more active and interested in the outcomes, which encourages to influence the organization’s attitude toward a situation.
The group risk attitude is influenced by other factors than the individual’s risk attitude. The organization, as a group, behavior can be influenced by group dynamics, organizational culture, national culture, and societal norms [71, 77]. The group dynamic and organizational culture can have a huge impact on the organization’s risk attitude and it can lead to adopting different perspectives or risk attitudes by the group from that taken by individual members. Comparing to the individual attitude, the group attitude could be influenced to become “risky shift” where the group tends to be more risk-seeking than its individuals or “cautious shift” where the group becomes more risk-averse [74].
In addition, subconscious and unmanaged risk attitudes pose a significant threat to the ability of individuals and groups to achieve their objectives [71, 76]. Therefore, understanding how the risk attitude influences the organizational behavior and the decision-making process; being able to adopt a suitable risk attitude for each situation; and if needed being able to modify the current risk attitude, are steps that help the organization to improve their risk management efficiency [24].
The organization culture could be influence by the leadership style of the top management [74, 77]. In the last decade, several studies emphasized the importance of internal communication within the organization, where the voice of lower-level employees can offer an important source of information to organizational learning and change [73, 77, 78, 79, 80]. Further, locally held knowledge can help in risk identification and evaluation. Therefore, top management should provide a safe environment (one that shows interest and willingness to act on the provided information), even sometime, with an incentive to encourage the employee to speak up about organizational issues and potential risks [77, 80].
In general, employees tend to be intimidated to speak up since risks tend to have negative implications and often implies a need for a change [78, 79]. In [77], it was concluded that top-management support and its openness to ideas are one of the most important circumstantial factors for the employees’ inclination to provide input on potential threats and opportunities. Furthermore, a participative leadership style significantly enhances the risk management process and introduce a positive interaction and advantageous atmosphere in the workplace [73, 77, 80].
Moreover, developing a positive relationship with the project stakeholders is fundamental in the risk management process [80]. This relationship may not always protect the organization from every risk, but it can be seen as a “reservoir of goodwill” as the stakeholders place their confidence in the management team, which would help to deal with risks more effectively and ultimately contribute to the achievement of organizational goals [80, 81]. For the most part, project management literature suggests that various stakeholders, which may include individuals and organizations, may be directly or indirectly involved in the process of managing risk [80].
Kutsch and Hall [81] offer an overview of management team behaviors that tended to prevent required actions or pause any changes on the original plan, extracted from the project uncertainty management and expected utility theory (EUT), regarding the relationship with stakeholder and the leadership style of top management. These behaviors were called intervening conditions that driven from a lack of knowledge, distrust, or discomfort [82]. In addition, they can be categorized in the context of uncertainty into denial, avoidance, delay, and ignorance of uncertainty [81, 82]. Hence, these behaviors are unconscious behaviors rooted in approaches driven by the management due to fear of revealing bad news or the tendency to obey the original plan and follow procedures [81].
The causes of these actions can be traced to the perception of management on the stakeholder reaction to the information. For instance, denial of uncertainty refers to the management refusal to reveal risk-related information (that may hold negative or discomforting connotations) to other stakeholders [81, 82, 83]. Denial of uncertainty can be adopted to not expose the stakeholders to something perceived as negative which might endanger the long-term relationships with them.
Avoidance of uncertainty refers to the lack of attention to risk-related information due to insufficient trust or belief in the efficacy of that information [81, 82]. Therefore, management tends to avoid uncertainty out of fears of conflicting confidence levels about risk estimates between stakeholders. On the other hand, delay of uncertainty refers to the failure to consider or resolve risk due to lack of interest or poor general approach to project management [81, 82]. In this case, management tends to delay dealing with uncertainty to accommodate the different expectations of stakeholders about how to manage risk. Finally, ignorance of uncertainty refers to the complete lack of awareness of risk-related information by the majority of stakeholders [81, 82, 83]. This behavior can be traced back to the unwillingness to spend more resources on the scanning of the environment or the inability to scan and interpret the environment because of certain factors such as complexity and dynamics of a project [34, 81].
Ignorance and denial of uncertainty could be forestalled by increasing the tolerance of ambiguity, the experience of the management team, and the amount of control that a project manager has over internal and external factors [82]. Tolerance of ambiguity was defined in [83], p. 2, as “the tendency to perceive ambiguous situations as desirable” which refers to the extent to which an individual seeks clarity and specifies vague and unclear information to use it to improve their risk management proficiencies [82]. Several studies suggested that spending more time during the environmental analysis process for the purpose of uncertainty reduction could lead to a higher degree of tolerance toward ambiguity [34, 81, 82, 83]. Furthermore, top management with greater experience (greater accumulation of relevant historic data) may help to avoid the problem of complete unawareness of threats [82].
In addition, delay, avoidance, and denial of uncertainty may be decreased with increased project manager control over internal and external factors that affect the project [81]. Hence, if managers perceive their environment as more controllable they tend to be more proactive [82]. On the other hand, only focusing on the statistical probability of threats and their impact while ignoring any other information can be considered irrational. Therefore, top management should be prepared and willing to react to any unpredicted disruptions in the project while keeping transparency with the relevant stakeholders [34].
The impact of the intervening conditions can be beyond the control of the top management or might be initiated by a supplier or a customer or even as a result of the managers’ behavior [81, 82, 83]. The top management should recognize that a rational decision-making process is required, and concealing information or ignoring uncomfortable risks is not rational and might jeopardize the long-term relationship with stakeholders [81].
This section identified several soft skills approaches and highlighted the scholars’ perception of the soft side of risk management. The next section would propose and suggest practices, tools, and techniques related to the soft side to help to generate a framework that assesses the risk management process and provide a guideline to ensure an effective risk management process.
In the 2000s, the literature extensively studied the hard side approaches of risk management as the main approach to managing risk, while each element of the soft side approaches was studied separately [10, 24]. This study investigates these approaches to propose a conceptual framework in order to assess the risk management process implementation and provide a guideline to improve the process by integrating practices and processes from both sides of management.
A major focus of this review is to unpack the current understanding of the soft side of risk management. Also, to investigate the benefits of adopting soft approaches in parallel with the hard ones. However, this can be problematic, given a limited study of the integration concept and its ambiguity in existing literature [12].
Few studies were to be found investigating the influence of both approaches of risk management together (soft and hard) [10]. It is true that without a proper theoretical understanding of the concept of project management soft skills, the practicality would be underdeveloped and might result in improper resource distribution. In addition, risk perceptions manly steer decisions about the acceptability of risks and the core influence on behaviors [73]. However, neither perceptions of nor attitudes toward risk could be taken as equivalents of actual behavior. Consequently, the need to integrate the soft and hard skills was recognized.
The literature provides well-proven models and frameworks to describe and assess the various dimensions of the soft side of risk (e.g. risk attitude, human factors, and emotion) separately [24]. However, these dimensions interact in powerful ways and these interactions can have a significant influence in determining the effectiveness of each separate dimension [71]. On the other hand, the hard skills considered by scholars as baseline competencies that cover only part of the managerial aspects of project uncertainties. [27]. Hence, the hard side is considered essential for the day to day operation, rather than a sufficient tool by itself for managing risks, especially, if the organization commence the risk management process through its people, acting individually and in various groups. In addition, since most projects can present unforeseeable uncertainty, this study suggests the need to integrate the hard and soft sides during the risk management process. Figure 1 shows a conceptual framework that integrates practices and tools from both sides of risk management to ensure a more efficient risk management process.
Conceptual framework (comprehensive integrated tools and practices within the risk management process).
At the same time, researchers found that there is a strong relationship between the amount of risk management implemented in a project and the level of project success [10]. The earlier risk management was undertaken in a project, the higher is the level of success [17]. Consequently, organizations are giving more attention and value to risk management for improving project efficiency and effectiveness [12].
In [10], the impact of the soft approach was investigated with the relationship to project success, and they found that the soft side of risk management appears most prominently and explains 10.7% of the effect on project success. In addition, they investigate the relation to the hard side, and they found a significant correlation between the two sides. Further, they found that the soft side supports the hard side with a correlation explains 25.3% of the effect on the hard side.
The hard side has been consolidated over time with the effort of professional associations, companies, and scholars through toolsets, standards, and BoKs [10, 16, 39]. This study combined tools and practices from the literature in order to gather 14 practices and tools that best explains and covers the hard side of risk management, and it was driven from the main 4 process groups of risk management. However, scholars suggest that the impact of this effort on the project success is still weak and can be improved by integrating the soft side of management within the risk management process [10]. Consequently, as illustrated in Figure 1, this study focused on three aspects of the soft side to enhance the risk management proficiencies and resulted in three process groups driven from the following literature [10, 22, 24, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 71, 73, 74, 76, 77, 78, 79, 80, 81, 82, 83]. These groups include:
The organization risk attitude, and have four tools and practices: perform individuals mapping to assess their proximity to risk; perform individuals mapping to assess their influence in the organization (level of power); investigate and understand the organizational culture along with the group dynamics and its influence on the organization risk attitude; identify the organization risk attitude with its relevance to the individuals’ attitude (risky shift or cautious shift).
Participative leadership style, and have two tools and practices: create internal communication channels to communicate risk-related issues; show interest and willingness to act on all provided information.
The relationship with stakeholders within uncertainty condition, and have four tools and practices: perform concentrated environmental analysis for the purpose of uncertainty; increase the tolerance of ambiguity by ensure clarity and specifies vague and unclear information; keep accumulation records of relevant historic data along with hiring more experienced managers to deal with uncertainty; assure to the stakeholders that top management are prepared and willing to react to any unpredicted disruptions in the project.
This integrated framework provides base guidelines to enhance overall risk management efficiency. For instance, using the practices from the organization risk attitude process group can help to assess, describe, and understand the organization’s risk attitudes. Consequently, the action is required to modify attitude, especially, when identified risk attitude is not beneficial to achieve effective risk management [24, 71]. Further, recent studies in the field of emotional intelligence provide means that can promote and manage attitudinal change for both individuals and organizations [71].
In the last decades, scholars argued for the need of combining the hard and soft skills of management [22]. Consequently, tools and practices that encourage the hard side of management are necessary, but they need to be supplemented with leadership and soft skills. Since effective project risk management requires broad involvement and collaboration across all segments of the project team and its environment [10]. A deeper understanding of the soft side of risk management can open up a wide range of opportunities for scholars and practitioners interested in improving the risk process around the world. Therefore, the conceptual framework presented in this study provides a guide to facilitate integrating the hard and soft sides of risk management.
The majority of the literature support that the soft side has an impact on project success. Further, a significant relationship between the hard and soft sides is recognized in several fields. This relation influences the implementation of the risk management process throughout the project life-cycle. However, even that several studies consider the soft skills as requisites for success, some still disagree with the fact that these skills can be taught, learned, or managed and advocate that these skills are innate or genetic [28]. This study provides a way to assess and describe some of these skills and provides tools and techniques to influence and manage them.
Finally, focusing on the suggested three process groups helps scholars and practitioners to better understand the soft side concept of risk management and pave the way for improving the risk management process itself. In conclusion, the soft side of risk management is a viable concept within risk and uncertainty management studies, which is yet to be fully explored. In addition, integrating the soft and hard skills offer a broader risk management process that ensures more efficient results. Consequently, there is a need for more in-depth research that goes beyond documentation of meanings and activities regarding the soft side of risk management to the documentation of the process that integrates the hard and soft sides and monitors the progress resulted in implementing the integration.
From the early civilization of humankind, as a construction material, sand is used extensively. In clay bricks, mud mortars, and lime mortars, the sand finds applications. When the concrete emerged as a construction material, the sand became an integral part of this versatile material. After the stone age, metals were used in making the tools and utensils. For the production of metal items, foundry operations are invariably required. For mold making, the sand has been used from the beginning of the usage of metals in the day-to-day life of the human being. The foundries utilize the sand for two critical applications of mold making and core making. As stated by Javed and Lovell [1], the mold is the outside container of the casting, and the core is the form for achieving the internal shape and cavities within the casted metal structure. Now also, the sand is the primary constituent matter of the mold or core making materials. Silica sand, along with binders such as clay or sodium chemical binders, is used for the making of the mold for metal casting. Sand with clay is naturally available and is abundantly used in mold making. As per the Bureau of Indian Standards IS 3343 [2], original molding sand used in foundries has clay content varied from 5 to 20%. Dogan-Saglamtimur [3], from the research on the reuse of the waste foundry sand in the manufacture of geopolymer concrete, depicted that foundry sands have a loose structure in nature. After several cycles of reuses, the molding sand or foundry sand from the released molds and cores discarded and becomes industrial wastes. A large quantity of such industrial waste sand is generated from foundries all over the world. U. S. Department of Transportation [4] estimated that 1 ton of casting requires 1 ton of foundry sand approximately. American Foundry Society [5] reported that 100 million tons of sand are using and reusing in foundries per annum in the United States itself. The sand from industrial wastes can be recycled for applications in civil engineering and is called “used foundry sand,” “waste foundry sand,” or “spent foundry sand.”
As the quantity of the used foundry sand is so enormous, the disposal of used foundry sand in landfills is significantly affecting the ecology and the environment. Hence, the reuse of waste foundry sand in civil engineering applications other than a land filling is much beneficial to the society from both economical and environmental point of view. The research on the reuse of waste foundry sand in the construction industry is very much crucial as it is the largest consumer of the virgin sand. As a matter of fact, the natural sources of sand are being affected due to the overconsumption and now facing depletion. Every step toward reducing the use of natural sand by adopting waste foundry sand as a full or partial substitute to natural sand will lead to the preservation of the natural resources and the safe disposal of the industrial waste sand to a beneficial application safeguarding the ecology and the environment. In the following paragraphs, the used foundry sand and their properties are discussed in detail. Also, the utilization of used foundry sand recommended by various researchers in a variety of fields related to the construction industry is addressed with sufficient experimental findings. Since concrete plays a significant role in the construction industry, an extensive study of properties of concrete incorporating used foundry sand is also appended for the easy understanding of the applicability of the used foundry sand in concrete making.
Used foundry sand (UFS), waste foundry sand (WFS), or spent foundry sand (SFS) is obtained from the released waste molds and cores from the foundries. The released molds’ and cores’ size and shape are different depending on the casting. The discarded molds and cores can be directly used for filling low lying areas. However, there may be a chance of contamination of the water sources due to the chemicals present in the waste foundry sand. To employ the used foundry sand for other civil engineering applications, further processing is required.
It should be noted that the waste foundry sand may contain metal and debris present in the discarded molds. However, as per the reports of the American Foundry Society [5], in most of the foundries, sand reclamation units are employed for the removal of metal particles and debris from the waste foundry sand for advanced applications. Two types of foundry sand are generated from foundries. These are named “green sand” and “chemically bonded sand,” depending on the binders used in the production of mold or core. About 90% of the used foundry sand comes under the category of green sand only. Processed used foundry sand as per Salim et al. [6] is shown in Figure 1.
Used foundry sand.
The used foundry sand has varied physical, chemical, and mechanical properties. In an examination of the characteristics of waste foundry sand and its leachate, Siddique et al. [7] emphasized that the physical and chemical properties of the used foundry sand mostly depend on the industrial segment for which the casting is made. The physical, chemical, and mechanical properties of used foundry sand are discussed in detail below.
The physical properties of used foundry sand are showing much diversity across the globe. The green sand and chemically bonded sand have different colors. As per the reports of Federal Highway Administration [8], the color of the green sand is gray or black, and the chemically bonded sand has an off-white or medium tan color. Usually, the size of the majority of the particles in the used foundry sand is in the range of 600–150 microns. The U. S. Department of Transportation [4] stated that the used foundry sand has moderately uniform particle size distribution, with just about 85–95% of the particles between 600- and 150-micron sizes and 5–12% of the particles having less than 75-micron sizes. Usually, the used foundry sand consists of subangular to round-shaped particles. The specific gravity of the used foundry sand depends on the properties of the virgin sand and the type of the binders used. Generally, the specific gravity of spent foundry sand has many variations from foundries to foundries. Javed and Lovell [1] stated that the specific gravity of spent foundry sand varies from 2.39 to 2.55. Bulk density of used foundry sand also depends on the properties of virgin sand and the materials used as binders. Naik et al. [9] reported that the bulk density of used foundry sand varies from 1052 to 1554 kg/m3. The percentage of the mass of water absorbed to the dry mass of the material is water absorption. As per the values of water absorption results from the earlier studies reported by Javed and Lovell [1], American Foundrymen’s Society [10], and Johnson [11], the used foundry sand has water absorption of 0.45%. Later, it was revealed that the water absorption values of used foundry sand have much variation from sources to sources. Naik et al. [9] stated that the water absorption of used foundry sand is in the range of 0.38–4.15%. The fineness modulus of sand depends on the grading of the material. The surface moisture content of the sand can reduce the water requirement of the concrete and mortar mix. Most of the researchers did not report the fineness modulus and moisture content of the used foundry sand. However, Seshadri and Salim [12] and Kewal et al. [13] reported that waste foundry sand has a fineness modulus of 2.28 and 2.45, respectively. As per the physical properties stated by Guney et al. [14], the used foundry sand has a moisture content of 3.25%. A comparative graph of the gradation of natural sand and used foundry sand, as reported by Prabhu et al. [15], is shown in Figure 2.
Gradation of natural sand and foundry sand.
The chemical properties of used foundry sand depend on the type of binders used in the foundry sand mixture. Johnson [11] reported that the pH of used foundry sand varies from 4 to 8. The used foundry sand consists of different metal oxides. These include SiO2, Al2O3, Fe2O3, CaO, MgO, SO3, Na2O, K2O, TiO2, Mn2O3, and SrO. Etxeberria et al. [16] stated that as far as the chemical constituents of used foundry sand were concerned, silicon dioxide constitutes the maximum contribution with 95.10% and the minimum by sulfur trioxide having a contribution of 0.03% of the total mass of used foundry sand. As per the chemical analysis of used foundry sand reported by American Foundrymen’s Society [10], the spent foundry sand has a loss on ignition of 5.15%.
The spent foundry sand has excellent mechanical properties at par with the conventional sand. American Foundrymen’s Society [10] stated that the spent foundry sand has an angle of internal friction varying from 33° to 40°, and the California Bearing Ratio (CBR) values range from 4 to 20%. As per the reports of the Ministry of Natural Resources [17], the Micro-Deval Abrasion Loss of used foundry sand is less than 2%, and Magnesium sulfate soundness loss varies from 5 to 15%.
The used foundry sand can be used in partially or fully for all the purposes where the conventional sand is used. The used foundry sand can be used in a wide variety of applications such as road materials, cement concrete, geopolymer concrete, cement mortars, paver blocks, and masonry blocks.
The used foundry sand can be utilized as materials for road construction. Yazoghli-Marzouk et al. [18] studied the recycling of foundry sand in road construction. They found that treated used foundry sand with a 5.50% hydraulic binder did not show environmental impacts by leaching and has desirable mechanical properties and recommended the application of used foundry sand in the sub-base layer in road construction. The source of foundry sand was a stock of about 150,000 tons of foundry sand stock in Burgundy in France. Iqbal et al. [19] conducted studies on the operation of used foundry sand as a material for embankment, and structural fill further emphasized that sand replaced with 6% used foundry sand is best suitable for structural fill, embankment, and road sub-base material. Generally, it is believed that the compacted waste foundry sand can cause leaching of toxic constituents to the groundwater. But many pieces of research in this regard showed that waste foundry sand did not contaminate the surface water or groundwater. Arulrajah et al. [20] conducted the chemical composition analysis and leachate analysis of used foundry sand. They put forth the implementation of waste foundry sand in road embankment fill and pipe bedding applications. The waste foundry sand used in this research was provided by a recycling plant in Melbourne, Australia. The used foundry sand has superior qualities as that of conventional sub-base material for road construction, and the usage of waste foundry sand can reduce the thickness of the sub-base layer, and thereby, construction cost can be reduced. Guney et al. [21] studied the properties of highway sub-bases with used foundry sand mixtures. They highlighted that the incorporation of used foundry sand can reduce the thickness of the sub-base layer in the sub-base construction of roads.
In the construction of flexible pavements too, the waste foundry sand can be employed to a noticeable extent. The aptness of the waste foundry sand in asphalt mixtures depends on several properties of waste foundry sand, including gradation, particle shape, cleanliness, and surface texture. In a case study on the different methods other than the landfill for the disposal of spent foundry sand generated from the small to medium enterprises in the United Kingdom, Nabhani et al. [22] stated that both green sand and chemically bonded sand could be beneficially replaced with virgin sand in the manufacture of asphalt with an impending extension of its useful working life to about 60 years. Apart from the working life extension, cost savings can also achieve by the replacement of virgin sand by used foundry sand. The used foundry sand incorporated asphalt mixtures are environmentally safe material having no adverse effects on the surroundings. Bakis et al. [23] conducted experiments on the properties of asphalt mixtures made with used foundry sand by replacing the aggregate in different fractions. The environmental impact on the use of used foundry sand also examined. As per the research findings of the investigation on the properties of the used foundry sand incorporated asphalt mixtures, it is described that the use of waste foundry sand in asphalt mixtures did not considerably affect the surrounding environment and further suggested that 10% aggregates can be replaced with the waste foundry sand in the production of asphalt mixtures. Javed et al. [24] investigated the possibilities of the usage of green sand from gray iron castings in asphalt concretes by replacing the total aggregates by 15, 20, and 30% by weight. The bulk-specific gravity, theoretical-specific gravity, Marshall stability, and Marshall flow tests were conducted on the asphalt concrete samples incorporating used foundry sand and control asphalt concrete sample. From the research analysis, it is confirmed that the aggregates in asphalt concrete can be replaced with green sand obtained from gray iron castings up to a replacement level of 15%.
For road foundations also, used foundry sand can be employed in an efficient manner. Pasetto and Baldo [25] investigated the properties of road foundation mixtures made using cement, waste foundry sand, and steel slag in different proportions. The samples were tested after different curing periods for Proctor, compressive strength, indirect tensile strength, and elastic modulus by static and dynamic tests. From the analysis of hydraulically bound mixtures made with waste foundry sand and steel slag, it is noted that the used foundry sand with cement and steel slag showed satisfactory results as per the norms of Italian Road Technical Standards, and the mixture containing 80% of steel slag and 20% of waste foundry sand gives the optimum characteristics. The used foundry sand can be employed in structural fill, embankment, road sub-base, and asphalt concrete mixtures either independently or with other materials like cement and steel slag.
The waste foundry sand gradation is mostly outside the lower limits for fine aggregates used in concrete. It is worthwhile to note that the grading of used foundry sand is too fine to satisfy the specifications of fine aggregate. Hence, the waste foundry sand can replace the fine aggregates in cement concrete to some extent only. Figure 3 shows the grading curve for used foundry sand as per the sieve analysis by Khatib et al. [26] and the gradation limits for fine aggregates as per ASTM-C-33 [27].
Used foundry sand grading curve.
In general-purpose concretes, used foundry sand finds extensive applications. The used foundry sand is an effective substitute to fine aggregate in general-purpose concretes having strength parameters ranging from low strength to ultra-high strength. Many researchers found that used foundry sand is effective in reducing the usage of fine aggregate in common concretes to a greater extent. Manoharan et al. [28] investigated the characteristics of concrete with chemically bonded used foundry sand in concrete with characteristic compressive strength of 20 MPa having natural river sand replaced with 0, 5, 10, 15, 20, and 25% of used foundry sand and reported that the strength parameters of used foundry sand incorporated concrete containing 5–20% used foundry sand are similar to the control mix with 100% natural river sand of 4.75 mm maximum size as fine aggregate and 20 mm size crushed granite as coarse aggregate. The used foundry sand can reduce the cost of construction, too, to some extent. Bhimani et al. [29] stated that the concrete made with river sand and 20 mm downgraded crushed basalt rock aggregates with a 28th-day compressive strength of 20 MPa and a cost reduction of 3.39% could be achieved by replacing 50% river sand with waste foundry sand in the concrete mix.
In medium strength concrete with a characteristic compressive strength equal to or greater than 30 MPa, used foundry sand is an efficient replacement material to fine aggregates, without compromising on the qualities of the concrete produced. Sohail et al. [30] investigated the properties of concrete of a characteristic compressive strength of 30 MPa made with river sand as fine aggregate and 20 mm nominal size crushed granite rock aggregates along with green sand from gray iron foundry as a substitute to river sand at 0, 10, 20, 30, 40, 50, 60, 70, 80, 90, and 100% and reported that up to 70% river sand could be replaced with used foundry sand for the concrete with sufficient strength parameters. The abrasion resistance and the strength properties of concrete having 40 MPa compressive strength at 28 days made with 4.75 mm nominal size natural sand and 12.50 mm nominal size coarse aggregate with used foundry sand as a partial substitute to river sand at 0, 5, 10, 15, and 20% were investigated by Singh and Siddique [31] and reported in similar lines that up to 20% natural sand could be replaced with used foundry sand for the production of the concrete having desirable properties and further notified that the incorporation of used foundry sand increased the abrasion resistance of the concrete.
Natural fine aggregates can be replaced with waste foundry sand for the production of high strength concrete also. Guney et al. [14] investigated the application of waste green foundry sand in high strength concrete of compressive strength of 65 MPa at 28 days made with fine sand replaced with waste foundry sand at 0, 5, 10, and 15% by weight of fine sand. They reported that the high strength concrete made with a replacement of 10% of fine aggregates with waste foundry sand exhibited strength parameters at par with the control concrete made with fine sand as fine aggregate. In this research, it is further noted that the freezing and thawing reduced the physical and mechanical properties of concrete by the addition of waste foundry sand to the concrete; however, the strength parameters were found to be acceptable as per the norms fixed by the American Concrete Institute. Chandrasekar et al. [32] succeeded in developing high strength concrete with green sand by partially replacing river sand of 4.75 mm maximum size by 0, 10, 20, 30, and 40% with waste foundry sand and 12.5 mm nominal size coarse aggregate. Slump, compressive strength, split tensile strength, flexural strength, and modulus of elasticity were determined on the samples produced. The effects of the concrete on elevated temperature were also studied. Based on the analysis of the test results, it is confirmed that it is very much possible to replace the fine aggregates with used foundry sand in the range of 10–20% for the production of high strength concrete having a 28th-day compressive strength of 60 MPa for better strength characteristics than the control concrete.
Experimentally, it is proved that ultra-high-strength concrete can be made with used foundry sand as a partial substitute to fine aggregate. Torres et al. [33] investigated the properties of ultra-high-strength concretes of 120 MPa compressive strength at 28 days made with 3.35 mm well-graded manufactured sand from limestone and river sand as fine aggregates and 6.35 mm size limestone and pea gravel as coarse aggregates along with spent foundry sand. In this research, fine aggregates were replaced by foundry sand at 0, 10, 20, and 30%. As an outcome of the study, it is noted that for optimum performance of the ultra-high-strength concrete, the river sand could be replaced with 10% spent foundry sand in the mix, which uses no coarse aggregates at all.
Nowadays, the requirements of fresh concrete in all the infrastructure projects are met with the ready-mixed concrete (RMC). By using the ready-mixed concrete of required grade, the quality of the concrete can be maintained better than the site mixed concrete. Many kinds of research were conducted on the feasibility of employing used foundry sand in the production of ready-mixed concrete also. Basar and Aksoy [34] conducted experiments on the effect of waste foundry sand as a partial substitute in 0, 10, 20, 30, and 40% of regular sand on the mechanical, leaching, and microstructural characteristics of ready-mixed concrete. The results of the various tests revealed that the typical regular sand in the replacement level of 20% with used foundry sand gives satisfactory mechanical and physical properties in the ready-mixed concrete incorporating used foundry sand.
The used foundry sand can be employed in special concretes like high-performance concrete, self-compacting concrete, high-performance self-compacting concrete, and lightweight concrete. Salim et al. [6] stated that high-performance concrete is high-strength concrete, having desired properties and uniform characteristics. Seshadri and Salim [12] investigated the features of high-performance concrete of design compressive strength of 60 MPa at 28 days with manufactured sand and 20 mm nominal size crushed stone aggregates as fine aggregates and coarse aggregates, respectively, in which fine aggregates were partially replaced by chemically bonded used foundry sand from 0 to 40% in 5% increments and found that up to 30% manufactured sand can be replaced with used foundry sand in the production of high-performance concrete with satisfactory strength characteristics. Ranjitham et al. [35] investigated the properties of 75 MPa characteristic compressive strength high-performance concrete made with 12.5 mm maximum size coarse aggregate and 4.75 mm maximum size river sand as fine aggregate with partial replacement of river sand by green foundry sand and reported that 10% addition of used foundry sand gives excellent strength properties than that of the control concrete without used foundry sand for high-performance concrete of 75 MPa characteristic compressive strength.
For the manufacture of self-compacting concrete also, the used foundry sand can be employed for the reduction in the consumption of the natural fine aggregates. The self-compacting concrete is a type of concrete that does not need external mechanical vibration for the compaction. The self-compacting concrete having strength characteristics in line with the concrete with conventional fine aggregates can be made with partial replacement of fine aggregates with used foundry sand. Siddique and Sandhu [36] reported that self-compacting concrete having a design characteristic compressive strength of 30 MPa made with 15% normal sand replaced by waste foundry sand and 10–12 mm maximum size coarse aggregate exhibited sufficient strength characteristics. Nirmala and Raviraj [37] conducted experiments on the optimization of the self-compacting concrete with used foundry sand as a partial substitute for manufactured sand (M-sand) using the Taguchi approach. The slump flow, V-funnel flow, U-box, L-box, and compressive strength tests were conducted. On the basis of the results obtained, it is noted that for obtaining optimum strength properties for the self-compacting concrete, 20% of manufactured sand (M-sand) should be replaced with spent foundry sand.
In modern construction practice, high-performance self-compacting concrete has great applications where the complicated molds are in use, and the reinforcement steels are very much congested. In this particular situation also, foundry sand waste can be employed with other materials in the production of self-compacting concrete. The high-performance self-compacting concrete has superior early as well as long-term durability and mechanical strength parameters. Makul [38] investigated the properties of high-performance self-consolidating concrete made with waste rice husk ash and foundry sand waste with water to binder ratios of 0.35 and 0.45 where the ordinary portland cement was replaced by rice husk ash in 10 and 20% by weight and the fine aggregate was replaced with foundry waste sand in 30 and 50% by weight. The foundry sand waste used was obtained from automobile part casting foundry. The slump flow, V-funnel flow, splitting tensile strength, and compressive strength tests were performed. Based on the test results, it is observed that the high-performance self-compacting concrete made with 30% replacement of fine aggregates with foundry sand waste and 10% cement replaced with rice husk ash has higher compressive and tensile strength than the conventional self-compacting concrete of the control mix.
Lightweight concrete is concrete, having less density than the regular concrete. In certain applications, regular concrete cannot be entertained due to its higher dead weight. In such situations, lightweight concrete can be effectively utilized. For the manufacture of lightweight concrete also, used foundry sand can be employed efficiently. Hossain and Anwar [39] reported that by the use of waste foundry sand and volcanic ash, lightweight concrete (LWC) can be made economically for the promotion of sustainable construction by reducing the disposal problems of waste foundry sand and volcanic ash.
Geopolymer concrete is an innovation in the field of concrete in which cement is not a constituent. In geopolymer concrete also, the waste foundry sand can be used in place of fine aggregates in various replacement levels. Dogan-Saglamtimur [3] investigated the waste foundry sand usage in geopolymer concrete made with sodium hydroxide or sodium silicate for building material production and maximum compressive strength of 12.3 MPa obtained for waste foundry sand incorporated geopolymer concrete containing 30% sodium silicate when the samples were cured at 200°C. The waste foundry sand used in this research is of green sand, which contained bentonite. Based on the results obtained, it is confirmed that the geopolymer material produced with waste foundry sand is suitable for use as a building wall material. For the manufacture of geopolymer concrete cured in ambient temperature also, used foundry sand can be employed in place of fine aggregates. Bhardwaj and Kumar [40] studied the effect of green sand from the ferrous foundry on ambient cured geopolymer concrete. They stated that up to 60% replacement level of fine aggregates to waste foundry sand, the strength parameters are improved better than that of the conventional geopolymer concrete. Scanning electron microscope (SEM) image of concrete of compressive strength of 46 MPa containing 100% chemically bonded foundry sand (FS), as reported by Mavroulidou and Lawrence [41], is shown in Figure 4.
SEM image of concrete containing 100% FS.
In another study on geopolymer concrete made with manufactured sand as fine aggregate with partial replacement of fine aggregate at 0, 5, 10, 15, 20, and 25% by weight of fine aggregate with foundry sand, Jerusha and Mini [42] studied the slump of the fresh geopolymer concrete and compressive strength of hardened geopolymer concrete samples at 3rd day, 7th day, and 28th day and found that the optimum replacement percentage of foundry sand to the fine aggregate is 15% for the geopolymer concrete made of foundry sand, and the maximum compressive strength obtained was 21.33 MPa.
The used foundry sand can constitute as a raw material for the production of cement mortars efficiently. The use of used foundry sand can reduce the cost of the mortars to a considerable extent. Safi et al. [43] conducted experiments on self-compacting mortars made with foundry sand wastes replacing normal sand at 0, 10, 30, and 50% and reported that self-compacting mortars incorporating foundry sand wastes yielded good results at 30% of foundry waste sand in place of normal sand. By the addition of used foundry sand, the workability of the cement mortars gets reduced. However, the deficiency in the workability can be made good by adding a superplasticizer at a low dosage. Cevik et al. [44] investigated the characteristics of cement mortars incorporating waste foundry sand from Turkey steel manufacturer as a partial substitute to natural sand at 0–60%. Based on the compressive strength tests conducted on samples at 3, 7, and 28 days, it is found that the optimum percentage substitution of used foundry sand as a replacement of natural sand in cement mortar is 15%, which yields the maximum compressive strength. Another research study on the use of calcium aluminate cement for recycling green sand and chemically bonded sand conducted by Navarro-Blasco et al. [45] confirmed that by using calcium aluminate cement, mortars of strength higher than 10 MPa can be produced with regular sand replaced by waste foundry sand at 50%.
The used foundry sand can be incorporated in the concrete for the manufacture of precast concrete products like paver blocks and masonry blocks. Many researchers conducted experiments on the applicability of used foundry sand in the production of paver blocks. Marchioni et al. [46] conducted experiments on paver blocks with spent foundry sand in Brazil. They reported that the paver blocks produced with 15% replacement of the fine aggregates with spent foundry sand gave acceptable strength parameters as per Brazilian standards ABNT NBR 9781. The incorporation of used foundry sand has shown a mixed response on the compressive strength of paver blocks. Kewal et al. [13] investigated the properties of paver blocks with geopolymer concrete incorporating used foundry sand and stated that the addition of used foundry decreases the compressive strength of paver blocks made with foundry sand-based geopolymer concrete. In another research on interlocking concrete paving blocks produced with foundry sand waste, Santos et al. [47] conducted compressive strength, measurement of dimension, and water absorption test paver blocks incorporating foundry sand waste. From the results, it is noted that the compressive strength of interlocking paver blocks produced with foundry sand waste is less than the compressive strength of paver blocks produced without foundry sand waste as per the specification laid by the Brazilian standards for the paver blocks. Tausif et al. [48], in a research study on foundry sand use in paver blocks, stated that paver blocks made with 12 mm maximum size coarse aggregate and 4.75 mm maximum size natural sand as fine aggregate with 0.3% synthetic fibers and foundry sand usage at 10% replacement of the fine aggregate showed a maximum compressive strength of 51.48 MPa at 28 days. In another research on the feasibility of used foundry sand in concrete pavers, Kulkarni and Katti [49] studied the properties of concrete pavers made with coarse aggregates of 10 mm maximum size and natural river sand as fine aggregate where the fine aggregates were replaced at 0, 25, 50, 75, and 100% with waste foundry sand from metal casting industries. Water absorption, compressive strength, split tensile strength, flexural strength, and abrasion resistance of the paver blocks were determined. From the test results, it is observed that water absorption increases with the percentage addition of waste foundry sand, whereas the compressive strength, splitting tensile strength, flexural strength, and abrasion resistance of paver blocks incorporating waste foundry sand decrease with the percentage addition of waste foundry sand. However, up to 50% replacements of natural river sand by waste foundry sand, the strength parameters of the paver blocks made are within the acceptable limits set forth by Indian Standard IS 15658 for paver blocks.
The waste foundry sand can be utilized in the production of masonry blocks also. Mahima et al. [50] studied compressive strength, water absorption, block density, drying shrinkage, and moisture movement of high-strength solid masonry blocks utilizing waste foundry sand as a replacement for fine aggregate and stated that at a replacement level of 20–30% of manufactured sand to waste foundry sand, the compressive strength and other parameters of the masonry blocks substantially improved over the regular masonry blocks. In this research, the control mix has a compressive strength of 23.78 MPa, whereas the blocks made with 20% fine aggregate replaced by used foundry sand yielded a compressive strength of 24.53 MPa. Naik et al. [51] studied the properties of concrete products like bricks, blocks, and paving stones incorporating recycled materials like used foundry sand, fly ash, and bottom ash. The brick samples were cast with regular sand, 9.5 mm maximum size crushed limestone chips, fly ash, bottom ash, and used foundry sand at 25 and 35% replacement of regular sand and tested for compressive strength, water absorption, density, and drying shrinkage. The test results confirmed that the concrete bricks with fine aggregates replaced with 25 and 35% ferrous green sand met with the compressive strength requirements as per ASTM C 55 for grade N concrete bricks.
A summary of the research studies described for different applications above is given in Table 1 for easy reference.
Sl. No. | Researchers | Application of used foundry sand |
---|---|---|
1 | Yazoghli-Marzouk et al. [18] | Sub-base layer in road construction |
2 | Iqbal et al. [19] | Material for embankment and structural fill |
3 | Arulrajah et al. [20] | Road embankment fill and pipe bedding |
4 | Guney et al. [21] | Highway sub-bases |
5 | Nabhani et al. [22] | Manufacture of asphalt |
6 | Bakis et al. [23] | Asphalt mixtures |
7 | Javed et al. [24] | Asphalt concretes |
8 | Pasetto and Baldo [25] | Road foundation mixtures |
9 | Manoharan et al. [28] | Concrete of compressive strength of 20 MPa |
10 | Sohail et al. [30] | Concrete of compressive strength of 30 MPa |
11 | Singh and Siddique [31] | Concrete of compressive strength of 40 MPa |
12 | Guney et al. [14] | High-strength concrete of compressive strength of 65 MPa |
13 | Chandrasekar et al. [32] | High-strength concrete of compressive strength of 60 MPa |
14 | Torres et al. [33] | Ultra-high-strength concrete of compressive strength of 120 MPa |
15 | Basar and Aksoy [34] | Ready-mixed concrete |
16 | Seshadri and Salim [12] | High-performance concrete of design compressive strength of 60 MPa |
17 | Ranjitham et al. [35] | High-performance concrete of design compressive strength of 75 MPa |
18 | Siddique and Sandhu [36] | Self-compacting concrete having a compressive strength of 30 MPa |
19 | Nirmala and Raviraj [37] | Self-compacting concrete |
20 | Makul [38] | High-performance self-consolidating concrete |
21 | Hossain and Anwar [39] | Lightweight concrete |
22 | Dogan-Saglamtimur [3] | Geopolymer concrete |
23 | Bhardwaj and Kumar [40] | Ambient cured geopolymer concrete |
24 | Jerusha and Mini [42] | Geopolymer concrete |
25 | Safi et al. [43] | Self-compacting mortars |
26 | Cevik et al. [44] | Cement mortars |
27 | Navarro-Blasco et al. [45] | Cement mortars |
28 | Marchioni et al. [46] | Paver blocks |
29 | Kewal et al. [13] | Paver blocks with geopolymer concrete |
30 | Santos et al. [47] | Paver blocks |
31 | Tausif et al. [46] | Paver blocks |
32 | Kulkarni and Katti [49] | Concrete pavers |
33 | Mahima et al. [50] | High-strength solid masonry blocks |
34 | Naik et al. [51] | Concrete products like bricks, blocks, and paving stones |
Summary of research studies.
The properties of fresh concrete made with used foundry sand vary much to that of standard concrete with regular ingredients. The fresh properties of concrete include the workability, temperature, density, and air content.
The workability is an essential parameter of the fresh concrete. In most cases, the workability of the concrete made with used foundry sand decreases as the percentage of used foundry sand increases in the mix. As per Khatib et al. [26], the decrease in workability is attributed to the increase in the fineness of the fine aggregate in the mix. However, some researchers reported equal or slightly higher slump values in concrete made with used foundry sand. Mavroulidou and Lawrence [41] stated that the concrete having 20 MPa compressive strength at 28 days made with 100% chemically bonded waste foundry sand showed 160 mm slump as against 120 mm slump for concrete with regular concrete sand. From the research findings on the use of foundry sand in concrete production, Khatib et al. [26] remarked that the slump dropped approximately in a linear manner from 200 mm for the control mix to zero for the mixes containing 80 and 100% waste foundry sand as the replacement of ordinary sand. Manoharan et al. [28] also confirmed that the slump values of concrete having a design compressive strength of 20 MPa at 28 days made with partial replacement of natural river sand with chemically bonded used foundry sand in 0, 5, 10, 15, 20, and 25% showed a significant decrease in slump value when the used foundry sand content increased in the concrete mix. The same trend was also stated by Bhardwaj and Kumar [52] that the addition of waste foundry sand lowered the workability of geopolymer concrete, and the effect was rapid beyond 40% waste foundry sand replacement level. Some researchers noticed that for concrete incorporating used foundry sand, up to a certain percentage replacement of fine aggregates with used foundry sand, the slump value remains constant. After that, the slump value decreases. In the investigation on the effects of foundry sand as a fine aggregate in concrete production, Prabhu et al. [53] observed that up to 10% replacement of fine aggregate with waste foundry sand, the slump value remains constant as that of the control mix, and after that, the slump values decreased. As per Seshadri and Salim [12], the high-performance concrete of 60 MPa characteristic compressive strength prepared with the fractional replacement of manufactured sand with used foundry sand from 0% to 40% showed a decrease in slump values as the percentage of used foundry sand increased in the concrete mix. In this research, the slump obtained was 140 mm for the control high-performance concrete, and at 40% replacement, the slump value obtained was only 105 mm. Ranjitham et al. [35] observed that for 75 MPa characteristic compressive strength high-performance concrete with cement and fly ash, the slump values consistently reduced from 55 to 42 mm with 0–30% addition of foundry sand. From the research on the effect of used-foundry sand on the mechanical properties of concrete, Siddique et al. [54] stated that the concrete having 28.5 MPa characteristic compressive strength showed a decrease in the slump values when the percentage replacement of used foundry sand increased from 0 to 30%. The concrete mix containing used foundry sand normally requires higher dosages of superplasticizers to maintain the workability. The slump variation of the control mix (CM) and the concrete mix with foundry sand (FS) from 10 to 50% replacement of natural sand when tested immediately after mixing, 30 minutes after mixing, and 60 minutes after mixing as reported by Prabhu et al. [15] for 25 MPa characteristic compressive strength concrete mix is shown in Figure 5.
Workability variation of foundry sand concrete.
Due to the inclusion of used foundry sand into the concrete mix, the temperature of the fresh concrete mix changes. Much research results are not available in this regard for the temperature variations. The temperature difference of the concrete mix is attributable to the chemical action of the chemicals present in the used foundry sand with cement and water. In the research report on the application of used foundry sand in concrete production, Prabhu et al. [53] stated that for 20 and 30% replacement of fine aggregate with used foundry sand, the concrete showed an increase in temperature of 1°C from the room temperature. Some researchers observed no variations in fresh concrete temperature to that of room temperature by the addition of used foundry sand in the concrete mix. Manoharan et al. [28] reported that the concrete made with natural river sand replaced with used foundry sand from 10 to 25% in 5% increments had no difference between the room temperature and the fresh concrete temperature. Naik et al. [55] stated that the fresh concrete containing 25 and 35% used foundry sand showed the same temperature as that of room temperature, whereas the control mix showed a 2°C less temperature as that of room temperature. Seshadri and Salim [12] stated that for high-performance concrete made with partial replacement of fine aggregates with used foundry sand, the temperature of the fresh concrete was less than that of the room temperature for all the replacement from 0 to 40%, and the highest temperature difference observed for the replacement of 30 and 35% has a value of 3.5°C, whereas for the control mix, the value observed was 2.5°C.
The specific gravity of the used foundry sand is normally less than the specific gravity of the fine aggregates. Hence, the density of the concrete incorporating used foundry sand may vary depending on the percentage of the used foundry sand in the concrete mix. Few researchers only reported the density of fresh concrete incorporating used foundry sand. Manoharan et al. [28] stated that the fresh density of concrete made with partial replacement of natural river sand with chemically bonded used foundry sand showed a marginal decrease in fresh density when the used foundry sand content increased from 0 to 25% in the concrete mix, the control mix has a fresh density of 2373 kg/m3, whereas the concrete containing 25% used foundry sand has a fresh density of 2355 kg/m3 only.
In some cases, the addition of used foundry sand does not affect the fresh density of concrete. Siddique et al. [54] investigated the effect of used-foundry sand on the mechanical properties of concrete. They reported that the concrete made with used foundry sand showed almost the same fresh density as that of the control mix for 10–30% replacement of fine aggregates with used foundry sand in which the control mix has a fresh density of 2331 kg/m3, and the concrete with 10, 20, and 30% used foundry sand has a fresh density of 2332 kg/m3. Naik et al. [55] also observed similar trends and confirmed that the control mix and concrete with 35% used foundry sand have the same fresh density, and fresh density of concrete with 25% used foundry sand has shown an increase in 1.30% over the control mix. For the ultra-high-strength concrete made with used foundry sand, also the fresh density has variation over the control mix. Torres et al. [33] investigated the properties of ultra-high-strength concrete made with silica fume, river sand, steel fibers, and green sand at 0, 10, 20, and 30% by weight of cement. They observed that the fresh density of ultra-high-strength concrete marginally decreased with the increase in the percentage of foundry sand in the mix from 2522 to 2502 kg/m3.
A small quantity of air is entrapped in the concrete. Depending on the concrete mix and type of compaction, the entrapped air content may vary. Manoharan et al. [28] investigated the properties of chemically bonded used foundry sand incorporated concrete and reported that the air content of fresh concrete made with partial replacement of natural river sand with used foundry sand showed a marginal increase with an increase in the used foundry sand content in the concrete mix, the control mix has an air content of 5.2%, whereas the concrete with 25% used foundry sand has an air content of 5.7%. Siddique et al. [54] also observed similar trends in air content for the concrete made with used foundry sand and stated that the air content of the concrete with used foundry sand has a higher percentage of air content than the control mix in which the control mix has an air content of 4.2%, whereas the air content at 10% used foundry sand, the air content value was increased to 4.5%. In some cases, the air content of the concrete mix made with used foundry sand is found to be less than the air content of the regular mix. Naik et al. [55] observed that the air content of the concrete made with used foundry sand tends to decrease up to 25% replacement of fine aggregate with used foundry sand and remains constant further up to 35% replacement.
Many researchers reported the hardened properties of concrete made with used foundry sand at different curing periods. The mechanical properties include compressive strength, split tensile strength, flexural strength, and modulus of elasticity. The mechanical properties of hardened concrete made using waste foundry sand are discussed in detail in the following paragraphs.
The concrete incorporating used foundry sand generally shows higher compressive strength than the normal concrete. In some cases, the compressive strength of concrete made with partial replacement of fine aggregates with used foundry sand was below or equal to that of the control mix. Siddique et al. [54] reported that the concrete having the 28th-day compressive strength of 28.5 MPa made with 0, 10, 20, and 30% replacement of sand with used foundry sand, the compressive strength was consecutively increased from 28.5 to 31.3 MPa. Manoharan et al. [28] reported the 28th-day compressive strength of concrete with 0 and 20% chemically bonded used foundry sand as 24.8 and 26.5 MPa, respectively, and for 25% used foundry sand, the compressive strength was below the compressive strength of control mix. In the majority of the research findings, the concrete containing used foundry sand has higher compressive strength than conventional concrete. As per Siddique et al. [54], the increase in compressive strength of the concrete made with used foundry sand may be due to the higher fineness of the used foundry sand than the regular sand, which resulted in the formulation of a denser concrete matrix along with the silica content present in the used foundry sand.
In some cases, the compressive strength of used foundry sand incorporated concrete is more or less the same as that of the control mix up to a certain percentage of used foundry sand content, and after that, the compressive strength decreases significantly. Prabhu et al. [53] stated that the concrete mix containing foundry sand up to 20% replacement of fine aggregate with foundry sand, the compressive strength observed was moderately close to the strength of the control mix, but beyond 20% replacement, the concrete mix showed lower strength than control mix. Some researchers pointed out specific reasons for the reduction of compressive strength of concrete made with used foundry sand beyond certain replacement levels of fine aggregate with used foundry sand. Singh and Siddique [31, 56] and Siddique et al. [57] pointed out that the compressive strength of concrete containing used foundry sand above a particular percentage gets reduced probably due to the increase in surface area of fine particles, which lead to the reduction of water-cement gel in the concrete matrix, and hence, the binding process of the coarse and fine aggregates does not take place properly. The graph of the compressive strength of ultra-high-strength concrete made with natural sand replaced by foundry sand at 0, 10, 20, and 30% at 7, 14, and 28 days as reported by Torres et al. [33] is shown in Figure 6.
Compressive strength vs. % foundry sand.
Depending on the source of used foundry sand, the concrete incorporating used foundry sand shows inferior or at par or superior split tensile strengths than the regular concrete.
In some cases, the split tensile strength of concrete made with used foundry sand increases with the percentage increase in used foundry sand in the concrete mix up to a certain level and decreases afterward. Sohail et al. [30] described that up to 40% replacement of river sand with waste foundry sand from a gray iron foundry, the split tensile strength of concrete at 28th day increases, and further, it reduces consistently up to 100% replacement. Patil et al. [58] confirmed that the split tensile strength of concrete of 30 MPa characteristic compressive strength made with partial replacement of fine aggregates with waste foundry sand increases up to 10% replacement, and further, it decreases in which the control concrete has a split tensile strength of 3.30 MPa, whereas at 10% waste foundry sand content, the split tensile strength increased to 3.87 MPa. Siddique et al. [54] reported that for concrete of 28.5 MPa characteristic compressive strength, the splitting tensile strength was consistently increased from 2.75 to 3.00 MPa from 0 to 30% replacement of regular sand with used foundry sand. In some research findings, the tensile strength of concrete with used foundry sand was found decreasing as the used foundry sand content increases. Seshadri and Salim [12] observed that, for the high-performance concrete with partial replacement of fine aggregate with used foundry sand, the split tensile strength was decreased with the increase in the percentage of used foundry sand from 0 to 40%; at 0% used foundry, the concrete has a split tensile strength of 6.30 MPa, whereas at 40%, the split tensile strength of concrete reduced to 4.40 MPa. Prabhu et al. [53] reported that the split tensile strength of concrete containing foundry sand at 20% substitution of fine aggregate with used foundry sand showed almost equal splitting tensile strength as that of control mix, and the tensile strength in general marginally decreases with an increase in the percentage of foundry sand in the concrete mix. Bhardwaj and Kumar [40] reported that the split tensile strength of ambient cured geopolymer concrete of 40 MPa compressive strength at 28 days made with waste foundry sand increases up to 60% replacement of natural sand with waste foundry sand from the ferrous foundry and decreases afterward for further increase in waste foundry sand percentage. A graphical representation of the split tensile strength of geopolymer concrete of 40 MPa compressive strength at 28 days made of waste foundry sand at different percentage replacements as per Bhardwaj and Kumar [40] is shown in Figure 7.
Split tensile strength vs. % waste foundry sand.
The flexural strength of the concrete containing used foundry sand shows marginal variations with the addition of used foundry sand. The flexural strength of concrete incorporating used foundry sand usually increases marginally to that of normal concrete. In the research on the properties of concrete with used foundry sand, Siddique et al. [54] observed that the flexural strength of 28.5 MPa characteristic compressive strength concrete consecutively increased with the percentage increase of used foundry sand up to 30% replacement level in which the flexural strength of control mix was 3.41 MPa and the flexural strength at 30% replacement was 4.18 MPa.
In some cases, the flexure strength seems to decrease with the increase in percentage addition of used foundry sand. Seshadri and Salim [12] reported that the high-performance concrete having 60 MPa characteristics compressive strength showed a decrease in flexure strength on the increase in replacement of fine aggregate with used foundry sand, in which the control mix has a flexural strength of 10.05 MPa, and at 40% used foundry sand content, the flexural strength decreased to 7.05 MPa. As per Torres et al. [33], at 10% replacement of fine aggregate with foundry sand, the ultra-high-strength concrete showed an increase in flexure strength, and further, it showed a consecutive decrement in flexure strength for 20 and 30% replacement of fine aggregates with foundry sand. Prabhu et al. [53] observed that the flexural strength of concrete with foundry sand content up to 20% of fine aggregates has similar results as that of the control mix; further, the flexural strength decreases after 20% replacement level. The flexural strength variation of concrete having 36.5 and 46 MPa compressive strength at 28 days made with regular sand replaced at 0, 10, 30, 50, 70, and 100% to chemically bonded foundry sand with water to cement ratio 0.55 and 0.45 as reported by Mavroulidou and Lawrence [41] is shown in Figure 8.
Flexural strength vs. % foundry sand.
Generally, the modulus elasticity of concrete containing used foundry sand increases up to certain percentage content of used foundry sand and then tends to decrease with further increase in the used foundry sand content. Manoharan et al. [28] observed that the modulus of elasticity of concrete increased with percentage replacement of natural river sand with used foundry sand from 0 to 20%, and further addition of used foundry sand decreased the modulus of elasticity, the modulus of elasticity of control concrete was 23.60 GPa, whereas at 20% replacement of river sand with used foundry sand, the elastic modulus increased to 25.40 GPa. As per the research findings of Prabhu et al. [53], the replacement of fine aggregate with used foundry sand slightly improved the modulus of elasticity of concrete mix. Some researchers observed marginal reduction of modulus of elasticity by the addition of used foundry sand. Basar and Aksoy [34] stated that the waste foundry sand content in the ready-mixed concrete reduces the modulus of elasticity. The variation of modulus of elasticity of ultra-high-strength concrete made with foundry sand at 7, 14, and 28 days for foundry sand percentages of 0, 10, 20, and 30% as reported in the research findings of Torres et al. [33] is shown in Figure 9.
Elastic modulus variation of foundry sand concrete.
The absorption and permeability characteristics of concrete include water absorption, rapid chloride permeability, sorptivity, and carbonation. The absorption and permeability characteristics of concrete incorporating used foundry sand are discussed in detail in the following paragraphs.
The concrete made with used foundry sand is generally more permeable than the normal concrete. However, some researchers reported that the inclusion of used foundry sand has no impact on the water absorption of the concrete. The water absorption is somewhat related to the compressive strength also. As per Basar and Aksoy [34], the concrete having higher water absorption has lower strengths. The water absorption of the hardened concrete has a significant effect on the durability characteristics of concrete. Khatib et al. [26] reported that water absorption of the concrete mix containing used foundry sand, the control mix showed the least and increased for 20, 40, 60, 80, and 100% replacement of fine aggregates with foundry sand. It is further confirmed that the water absorption of 56 days cured concrete samples also followed the same trend. Ready-mixed concrete with used foundry sand also showed similar behavior on water absorption. Basar and Aksoy [34] stated that the water absorption of ready-mixed concrete containing waste foundry sand increased with the increase in percentage replacement of fine aggregate with waste foundry sand. Some researchers observed a marginal decrease in water absorption of the concrete containing used foundry sand over the normal concrete. Salokhe and Desai [59] reported that the foundry waste sand had no apparent impact on the water absorption of concrete; however, at 20% ferrous foundry waste sand, the water absorption showed a decrease over the water absorption of the control mix, the control mix has water absorption of 1.91, and at 20% used foundry sand, the water absorption value was 1.13%.
Rapid chloride permeability test (RCPT) is an important test to ascertain the durability of concrete. In this test, as per ASTM C 1202-19 [60], the higher the charge passed through the samples, the concrete is more permeable. The penetration of chlorides through the concrete can affect the reinforcement steel, and the corrosion takes place. Hossain and Anwar [39] studied the rapid chloride penetration of lightweight concrete samples of 20 and 28 MPa compressive strength at 28 days made of waste foundry sand and volcanic ash from Papa New Guinea and reported that the chloride permeability of lightweight concrete decreases with the increase in the percentage content of waste foundry sand. As per the observations of Siddique et al. [57], for 20 and 30 MPa characteristic compressive strength concrete with regular sand partially replaced with spent foundry sand, the charge passed was found to be decreasing with the increase in spent foundry sand content in the concrete mix. In some cases, the chloride permeability decreases up to a certain percentage of used foundry sand in the concrete mix, and further, it increases. Singh and Siddique [31, 56] reported that the chloride permeability of concrete incorporating waste foundry sand decreases up to 15% substitution of fine aggregate with waste foundry sand, and further, it increases. In some cases, the used foundry sand content in the concrete increases the chloride permeability. Aggarwal and Siddique [61] stated that the concrete samples passed charges of 578, 628, 616, 600, 664, 652, and 741 coulombs for 0, 10, 20, 30, 40, 50, and 60% replacement of fine aggregates with waste foundry sand, respectively. As per ASTM C 1202-19 [60], all the above samples have very low permeability as the charges passed were between 100 and 1000 coulombs. A graphical representation of the charges passed through the samples on rapid chloride permeability test (RCPT) at 56 days conducted by Hossain and Anwar [39] on lightweight concrete samples made with waste foundry sand and volcanic ash is shown in Figure 10.
Chloride penetration of lightweight foundry sand concrete.
The sorptivity of the concrete is due to the capillary rise of water from the bottom of the concrete specimen. Some researchers reported a decrease in sorptivity up to certain percentage content of used foundry sand and an increase in sorptivity after that. Bhardwaj and Kumar [40] reported that the sorptivity of geopolymer concrete made with waste foundry sand tends to decrease from 0 to 60% substitution of fine aggregate with waste foundry sand, and further addition of waste foundry sand in the mix increased the sorptivity. It is also observed that for the concrete having up to 80% of waste foundry sand, the initial rate of absorption (IRA) is less than the IRA of the control mix. Khatib et al. [62] reported that for the concrete made with natural sand replaced with used foundry sand at 0, 30, 60, and 100%, waste foundry sand (WFS) exhibited a consecutive increase in water absorption by capillary action when the WFS content increased in the concrete mix. A graph of the sorptivity variation of geopolymer concrete made with waste foundry sand as per Bhardwaj and Kumar [40] is shown in Figure 11.
Sorptivity vs. % waste foundry sand.
Carbonation is the reaction of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere with the calcium hydroxide in the cement paste. This reaction produces calcium carbonate and lowers the pH to a value of around 9. The carbonation affects the durability of the concrete. Generally, the used foundry sand content in the concrete mix increases the carbonation depth. Prabhu et al. [15] reported that the carbonation depth on 180 days of the concrete made with used foundry sand increased with the percentage increase in used foundry sand in the concrete mix. At 365 days also, the carbonation depth observed was increasing with the percentage increase in used foundry sand. Siddique et al. [63] stated that the carbonation depth of concrete made with 0, 10, 20, 30, 40, and 50% used foundry sand at 90 and 365 days increased with the used foundry sand content in the mix. The carbonation depth variation at 180th and 365th days as per Prabhu et al. [15] for 25 MPa characteristic compressive strength concrete made with used foundry sand is shown in Figure 12.
Carbonation depth vs. % used foundry sand.
The ultrasonic pulse velocity (UPV) test is one of the nondestructive tests (NDTs) to check the quality of the concrete. In this test, the quality and strength of concrete are evaluated by noting down the velocity of an ultrasonic pulse passing through a concrete body. A very few research results are only published on the UPV tests on concrete containing waste foundry sand. Khatib et al. [26] reported that the concrete specimens cured for 28 days showed a consistent decrease in ultrasonic pulse velocity values when the fine aggregates in the concrete mix were replaced with foundry sand in the range of 0, 20, 40, 60, 80, and 100%. The same trend was observed for the specimens cured for 56 days also. Prabhu et al. [15] also stated that the increasing amount of waste foundry sand in the concrete systematically decreases the ultrasonic pulse velocity of concrete made with natural sand replaced with 0, 30, 60, and 100% of waste foundry sand.
Many research findings are available on the long-term strength characteristics of concrete made with used foundry sand. Siddique et al. [54] studied the long-term strength characteristics of concrete incorporating used foundry sand and reported that the compressive strength, split tensile strength, flexural strength, and modulus of elasticity were improved much at 365 days over the strength at the 28th day for the concrete incorporating used foundry sand. It is to be noted that no detrimental effects were noticed in the strength parameters on aging due to the incorporation of used foundry sand in the concrete mix. Generally, the long-term strength characteristics increase up to certain percentage content of the foundry sand, and the further increase of foundry sand content, the strength decreases. Siddique et al. [63] stated that at 365 days, the compressive strength of concrete increases with percentage replacement of 10, 20, and 30% fine aggregates with foundry sand and decreased for 40, 50, and 60% foundry sand content.
The used foundry sand is a nonhazardous material. However, the chemicals present in the used foundry sand can leach into the groundwater and may affect the groundwater quality. As per Siddique et al. [7], the liquid drains or leaches from a landfill are called leachate. The leachate test is essential to assess the suitability of the used foundry sand for certain applications. Very few research observations are available on the leachate analysis of the concrete/mortars made with used foundry sand. Monosi et al. [64] conducted dynamic leaching tests on mortar samples as per Italian standards. They reported that the mortars made from used foundry sand do not release leachate higher than the values specified by Italian standards, and the pH of the leachate was found to be alkaline during the entire testing period. Fero et al. [65] observed that the concentrations of organic compounds in groundwater leached from an iron foundry landfill were below their respective detection limits.
In some cases, the used foundry sand may contain heavy metals. Navarro-Blasco et al. [45] reported that in mortars with used foundry sand, the used foundry sand appeared to be contaminated with heavy metals. In another research conducted by Kaur et al. [66] performed a metal analysis of the leachate obtained from concrete made with untreated and fungal treated waste foundry sand and indicated that waste foundry sand is the contributor of the concentration of leachable metals in concrete containing waste foundry sand. Results from the above research further showed that metal concentration in leachate obtained from fungal treated waste foundry sand incorporated concrete is less than the leachate of untreated waste foundry sand concrete.
The foundry industries all over the world generate an enormous quantity of waste sand every year. Many investigations conducted on the reuse of waste foundry sand over the years suggested that the sand discarded from the foundry industries as waste material can be recycled and utilized for beneficial applications in road embankment formation, structural fill, pipe bedding, asphalt concrete, mortars, and different types of concretes. But horizons are still open for the researchers for further innovations in the application of used foundry sand mainly related to the needs in the construction industry where better strength and durability properties are of the paramount concern. In most of the research findings, it suggested that 10–30% fine aggregates can be replaced with used foundry sand for the manufacture of concrete and mortars with sufficient strength parameters with reduced cost. Some researchers estimated that the cost reduction is much significant if the waste foundry sand can be employed in making concrete or concrete products near the foundry industries itself. Due to fine particles present in the used foundry sand, the workability of used foundry sand admixed concrete is profoundly much less than the workability of regular concrete having the same water to binder ratio. However, the researchers suggested that this deficiency can be overcome by adding superplasticizers to the mix. Some researchers pointed out that by performing some inexpensive treatments to the used foundry sand, the strength parameters of used foundry sand incorporated concretes and mortars can be enhanced further. Most of the researchers are in the view that the used foundry sand is a nonhazardous material. However, some researchers suggested that it is better to conduct leachate analysis in advance to avoid the chances of corrosion of the reinforcement if the used foundry sand is proposed to be utilized in the production of concrete for RCC structures. From the analysis of the research works done so far, it can be established that the use of waste foundry sand in the construction industry can not only eliminate the problems of waste management and environmental impacts but also substantially boost up the sustainable developmental activities by way of reducing the consumption of natural resources. However, the feasibility of employing used foundry sand in civil engineering applications in the construction industry will invariably depend on the local cost and the availability of the used foundry sand in the required quantities where the construction work is to be executed. Amidst many research findings and suggestions, the beneficial use of used foundry sand in civil engineering applications is only a bare minimum at present. A collective effort from the researcher community, academicians, and industrialists is highly needed for the full utilization of the recycled used foundry sand from the industrial wastes in the construction industry soon.
Authors are listed below with their open access chapters linked via author name:
",metaTitle:"IntechOpen authors on the Global Highly Cited Researchers 2018 list",metaDescription:null,metaKeywords:null,canonicalURL:null,contentRaw:'[{"type":"htmlEditorComponent","content":"New for 2018 (alphabetically by surname).
\\n\\n\\n\\n\\n\\n\\n\\n\\n\\nJocelyn Chanussot (chapter to be published soon...)
\\n\\n\\n\\n\\n\\n\\n\\n\\n\\n\\n\\n\\n\\n\\n\\n\\n\\n\\n\\n\\n\\n\\n\\n\\n\\n\\n\\n\\n\\n\\n\\n\\n\\n\\n\\n\\n\\n\\n\\n\\n\\n\\n\\n\\n\\n\\n\\n\\n\\nYuekun Lai
\\n\\n\\n\\n\\n\\n\\n\\n\\n\\n\\n\\n\\n\\n\\n\\n\\n\\n\\n\\n\\n\\n\\n\\n\\n\\n\\n\\n\\n\\n\\n\\n\\n\\n\\n\\n\\n\\n\\n\\n\\n\\n\\n\\n\\n\\n\\n\\n\\n\\n\\n\\nPrevious years (alphabetically by surname)
\\n\\nAbdul Latif Ahmad 2016-18
\\n\\nKhalil Amine 2017, 2018
\\n\\nEwan Birney 2015-18
\\n\\nFrede Blaabjerg 2015-18
\\n\\nGang Chen 2016-18
\\n\\nJunhong Chen 2017, 2018
\\n\\nZhigang Chen 2016, 2018
\\n\\nMyung-Haing Cho 2016, 2018
\\n\\nMark Connors 2015-18
\\n\\nCyrus Cooper 2017, 2018
\\n\\nLiming Dai 2015-18
\\n\\nWeihua Deng 2017, 2018
\\n\\nVincenzo Fogliano 2017, 2018
\\n\\nRon de Graaf 2014-18
\\n\\nHarald Haas 2017, 2018
\\n\\nFrancisco Herrera 2017, 2018
\\n\\nJaakko Kangasjärvi 2015-18
\\n\\nHamid Reza Karimi 2016-18
\\n\\nJunji Kido 2014-18
\\n\\nJose Luiszamorano 2015-18
\\n\\nYiqi Luo 2016-18
\\n\\nJoachim Maier 2014-18
\\n\\nAndrea Natale 2017, 2018
\\n\\nAlberto Mantovani 2014-18
\\n\\nMarjan Mernik 2017, 2018
\\n\\nSandra Orchard 2014, 2016-18
\\n\\nMohamed Oukka 2016-18
\\n\\nBiswajeet Pradhan 2016-18
\\n\\nDirk Raes 2017, 2018
\\n\\nUlrike Ravens-Sieberer 2016-18
\\n\\nYexiang Tong 2017, 2018
\\n\\nJim Van Os 2015-18
\\n\\nLong Wang 2017, 2018
\\n\\nFei Wei 2016-18
\\n\\nIoannis Xenarios 2017, 2018
\\n\\nQi Xie 2016-18
\\n\\nXin-She Yang 2017, 2018
\\n\\nYulong Yin 2015, 2017, 2018
\\n"}]'},components:[{type:"htmlEditorComponent",content:'New for 2018 (alphabetically by surname).
\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nJocelyn Chanussot (chapter to be published soon...)
\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nYuekun Lai
\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nPrevious years (alphabetically by surname)
\n\nAbdul Latif Ahmad 2016-18
\n\nKhalil Amine 2017, 2018
\n\nEwan Birney 2015-18
\n\nFrede Blaabjerg 2015-18
\n\nGang Chen 2016-18
\n\nJunhong Chen 2017, 2018
\n\nZhigang Chen 2016, 2018
\n\nMyung-Haing Cho 2016, 2018
\n\nMark Connors 2015-18
\n\nCyrus Cooper 2017, 2018
\n\nLiming Dai 2015-18
\n\nWeihua Deng 2017, 2018
\n\nVincenzo Fogliano 2017, 2018
\n\nRon de Graaf 2014-18
\n\nHarald Haas 2017, 2018
\n\nFrancisco Herrera 2017, 2018
\n\nJaakko Kangasjärvi 2015-18
\n\nHamid Reza Karimi 2016-18
\n\nJunji Kido 2014-18
\n\nJose Luiszamorano 2015-18
\n\nYiqi Luo 2016-18
\n\nJoachim Maier 2014-18
\n\nAndrea Natale 2017, 2018
\n\nAlberto Mantovani 2014-18
\n\nMarjan Mernik 2017, 2018
\n\nSandra Orchard 2014, 2016-18
\n\nMohamed Oukka 2016-18
\n\nBiswajeet Pradhan 2016-18
\n\nDirk Raes 2017, 2018
\n\nUlrike Ravens-Sieberer 2016-18
\n\nYexiang Tong 2017, 2018
\n\nJim Van Os 2015-18
\n\nLong Wang 2017, 2018
\n\nFei Wei 2016-18
\n\nIoannis Xenarios 2017, 2018
\n\nQi Xie 2016-18
\n\nXin-She Yang 2017, 2018
\n\nYulong Yin 2015, 2017, 2018
\n'}]},successStories:{items:[]},authorsAndEditors:{filterParams:{sort:"featured,name"},profiles:[{id:"6700",title:"Dr.",name:"Abbass A.",middleName:null,surname:"Hashim",slug:"abbass-a.-hashim",fullName:"Abbass A. Hashim",position:null,profilePictureURL:"https://mts.intechopen.com/storage/users/6700/images/1864_n.jpg",biography:"Currently I am carrying out research in several areas of interest, mainly covering work on chemical and bio-sensors, semiconductor thin film device fabrication and characterisation.\nAt the moment I have very strong interest in radiation environmental pollution and bacteriology treatment. The teams of researchers are working very hard to bring novel results in this field. I am also a member of the team in charge for the supervision of Ph.D. students in the fields of development of silicon based planar waveguide sensor devices, study of inelastic electron tunnelling in planar tunnelling nanostructures for sensing applications and development of organotellurium(IV) compounds for semiconductor applications. I am a specialist in data analysis techniques and nanosurface structure. I have served as the editor for many books, been a member of the editorial board in science journals, have published many papers and hold many patents.",institutionString:null,institution:{name:"Sheffield Hallam University",country:{name:"United Kingdom"}}},{id:"54525",title:"Prof.",name:"Abdul Latif",middleName:null,surname:"Ahmad",slug:"abdul-latif-ahmad",fullName:"Abdul Latif Ahmad",position:null,profilePictureURL:"//cdnintech.com/web/frontend/www/assets/author.svg",biography:null,institutionString:null,institution:null},{id:"20567",title:"Prof.",name:"Ado",middleName:null,surname:"Jorio",slug:"ado-jorio",fullName:"Ado Jorio",position:null,profilePictureURL:"//cdnintech.com/web/frontend/www/assets/author.svg",biography:null,institutionString:null,institution:{name:"Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais",country:{name:"Brazil"}}},{id:"47940",title:"Dr.",name:"Alberto",middleName:null,surname:"Mantovani",slug:"alberto-mantovani",fullName:"Alberto Mantovani",position:null,profilePictureURL:"//cdnintech.com/web/frontend/www/assets/author.svg",biography:null,institutionString:null,institution:null},{id:"12392",title:"Mr.",name:"Alex",middleName:null,surname:"Lazinica",slug:"alex-lazinica",fullName:"Alex Lazinica",position:null,profilePictureURL:"https://mts.intechopen.com/storage/users/12392/images/7282_n.png",biography:"Alex Lazinica is the founder and CEO of IntechOpen. After obtaining a Master's degree in Mechanical Engineering, he continued his PhD studies in Robotics at the Vienna University of Technology. Here he worked as a robotic researcher with the university's Intelligent Manufacturing Systems Group as well as a guest researcher at various European universities, including the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Lausanne (EPFL). During this time he published more than 20 scientific papers, gave presentations, served as a reviewer for major robotic journals and conferences and most importantly he co-founded and built the International Journal of Advanced Robotic Systems- world's first Open Access journal in the field of robotics. Starting this journal was a pivotal point in his career, since it was a pathway to founding IntechOpen - Open Access publisher focused on addressing academic researchers needs. Alex is a personification of IntechOpen key values being trusted, open and entrepreneurial. Today his focus is on defining the growth and development strategy for the company.",institutionString:null,institution:{name:"TU Wien",country:{name:"Austria"}}},{id:"19816",title:"Prof.",name:"Alexander",middleName:null,surname:"Kokorin",slug:"alexander-kokorin",fullName:"Alexander Kokorin",position:null,profilePictureURL:"https://mts.intechopen.com/storage/users/19816/images/1607_n.jpg",biography:"Alexander I. Kokorin: born: 1947, Moscow; DSc., PhD; Principal Research Fellow (Research Professor) of Department of Kinetics and Catalysis, N. Semenov Institute of Chemical Physics, Russian Academy of Sciences, Moscow.\r\nArea of research interests: physical chemistry of complex-organized molecular and nanosized systems, including polymer-metal complexes; the surface of doped oxide semiconductors. He is an expert in structural, absorptive, catalytic and photocatalytic properties, in structural organization and dynamic features of ionic liquids, in magnetic interactions between paramagnetic centers. The author or co-author of 3 books, over 200 articles and reviews in scientific journals and books. He is an actual member of the International EPR/ESR Society, European Society on Quantum Solar Energy Conversion, Moscow House of Scientists, of the Board of Moscow Physical Society.",institutionString:null,institution:{name:"Semenov Institute of Chemical Physics",country:{name:"Russia"}}},{id:"62389",title:"PhD.",name:"Ali Demir",middleName:null,surname:"Sezer",slug:"ali-demir-sezer",fullName:"Ali Demir Sezer",position:null,profilePictureURL:"https://mts.intechopen.com/storage/users/62389/images/3413_n.jpg",biography:"Dr. Ali Demir Sezer has a Ph.D. from Pharmaceutical Biotechnology at the Faculty of Pharmacy, University of Marmara (Turkey). He is the member of many Pharmaceutical Associations and acts as a reviewer of scientific journals and European projects under different research areas such as: drug delivery systems, nanotechnology and pharmaceutical biotechnology. Dr. Sezer is the author of many scientific publications in peer-reviewed journals and poster communications. Focus of his research activity is drug delivery, physico-chemical characterization and biological evaluation of biopolymers micro and nanoparticles as modified drug delivery system, and colloidal drug carriers (liposomes, nanoparticles etc.).",institutionString:null,institution:{name:"Marmara University",country:{name:"Turkey"}}},{id:"61051",title:"Prof.",name:"Andrea",middleName:null,surname:"Natale",slug:"andrea-natale",fullName:"Andrea Natale",position:null,profilePictureURL:"//cdnintech.com/web/frontend/www/assets/author.svg",biography:null,institutionString:null,institution:null},{id:"100762",title:"Prof.",name:"Andrea",middleName:null,surname:"Natale",slug:"andrea-natale",fullName:"Andrea Natale",position:null,profilePictureURL:"//cdnintech.com/web/frontend/www/assets/author.svg",biography:null,institutionString:null,institution:{name:"St David's Medical Center",country:{name:"United States of America"}}},{id:"107416",title:"Dr.",name:"Andrea",middleName:null,surname:"Natale",slug:"andrea-natale",fullName:"Andrea Natale",position:null,profilePictureURL:"//cdnintech.com/web/frontend/www/assets/author.svg",biography:null,institutionString:null,institution:{name:"Texas Cardiac Arrhythmia",country:{name:"United States of America"}}},{id:"64434",title:"Dr.",name:"Angkoon",middleName:null,surname:"Phinyomark",slug:"angkoon-phinyomark",fullName:"Angkoon Phinyomark",position:null,profilePictureURL:"https://mts.intechopen.com/storage/users/64434/images/2619_n.jpg",biography:"My name is Angkoon Phinyomark. I received a B.Eng. degree in Computer Engineering with First Class Honors in 2008 from Prince of Songkla University, Songkhla, Thailand, where I received a Ph.D. degree in Electrical Engineering. My research interests are primarily in the area of biomedical signal processing and classification notably EMG (electromyography signal), EOG (electrooculography signal), and EEG (electroencephalography signal), image analysis notably breast cancer analysis and optical coherence tomography, and rehabilitation engineering. I became a student member of IEEE in 2008. During October 2011-March 2012, I had worked at School of Computer Science and Electronic Engineering, University of Essex, Colchester, Essex, United Kingdom. In addition, during a B.Eng. I had been a visiting research student at Faculty of Computer Science, University of Murcia, Murcia, Spain for three months.\n\nI have published over 40 papers during 5 years in refereed journals, books, and conference proceedings in the areas of electro-physiological signals processing and classification, notably EMG and EOG signals, fractal analysis, wavelet analysis, texture analysis, feature extraction and machine learning algorithms, and assistive and rehabilitative devices. I have several computer programming language certificates, i.e. Sun Certified Programmer for the Java 2 Platform 1.4 (SCJP), Microsoft Certified Professional Developer, Web Developer (MCPD), Microsoft Certified Technology Specialist, .NET Framework 2.0 Web (MCTS). I am a Reviewer for several refereed journals and international conferences, such as IEEE Transactions on Biomedical Engineering, IEEE Transactions on Industrial Electronics, Optic Letters, Measurement Science Review, and also a member of the International Advisory Committee for 2012 IEEE Business Engineering and Industrial Applications and 2012 IEEE Symposium on Business, Engineering and Industrial Applications.",institutionString:null,institution:{name:"Joseph Fourier University",country:{name:"France"}}},{id:"55578",title:"Dr.",name:"Antonio",middleName:null,surname:"Jurado-Navas",slug:"antonio-jurado-navas",fullName:"Antonio Jurado-Navas",position:null,profilePictureURL:"https://mts.intechopen.com/storage/users/55578/images/4574_n.png",biography:"Antonio Jurado-Navas received the M.S. degree (2002) and the Ph.D. degree (2009) in Telecommunication Engineering, both from the University of Málaga (Spain). He first worked as a consultant at Vodafone-Spain. From 2004 to 2011, he was a Research Assistant with the Communications Engineering Department at the University of Málaga. In 2011, he became an Assistant Professor in the same department. From 2012 to 2015, he was with Ericsson Spain, where he was working on geo-location\ntools for third generation mobile networks. Since 2015, he is a Marie-Curie fellow at the Denmark Technical University. His current research interests include the areas of mobile communication systems and channel modeling in addition to atmospheric optical communications, adaptive optics and statistics",institutionString:null,institution:{name:"University of Malaga",country:{name:"Spain"}}}],filtersByRegion:[{group:"region",caption:"North America",value:1,count:5703},{group:"region",caption:"Middle and South America",value:2,count:5174},{group:"region",caption:"Africa",value:3,count:1690},{group:"region",caption:"Asia",value:4,count:10246},{group:"region",caption:"Australia and Oceania",value:5,count:889},{group:"region",caption:"Europe",value:6,count:15653}],offset:12,limit:12,total:117316},chapterEmbeded:{data:{}},editorApplication:{success:null,errors:{}},ofsBooks:{filterParams:{hasNoEditors:"0",sort:"dateEndThirdStepPublish",topicId:"8,11,12,14"},books:[{type:"book",id:"10581",title:"Alkaline Chemistry and Applications",subtitle:null,isOpenForSubmission:!0,hash:"4ed90bdab4a7211c13cd432aa079cd20",slug:null,bookSignature:"Dr. Riadh Marzouki",coverURL:"https://cdn.intechopen.com/books/images_new/10581.jpg",editedByType:null,editors:[{id:"300527",title:"Dr.",name:"Riadh",surname:"Marzouki",slug:"riadh-marzouki",fullName:"Riadh Marzouki"}],productType:{id:"1",chapterContentType:"chapter",authoredCaption:"Edited by"}},{type:"book",id:"10374",title:"Advances in Micro- and Nanofluidics",subtitle:null,isOpenForSubmission:!0,hash:"b7ba9cab862a9bca2fc9f9ee72ba5eec",slug:null,bookSignature:"Prof. S. M. Sohel Murshed",coverURL:"https://cdn.intechopen.com/books/images_new/10374.jpg",editedByType:null,editors:[{id:"24904",title:"Prof.",name:"S. M. Sohel",surname:"Murshed",slug:"s.-m.-sohel-murshed",fullName:"S. M. Sohel Murshed"}],productType:{id:"1",chapterContentType:"chapter",authoredCaption:"Edited by"}},{type:"book",id:"10597",title:"Electric Grid Modernization",subtitle:null,isOpenForSubmission:!0,hash:"62f0e391662f7e8ae35a6bea2e77accf",slug:null,bookSignature:"Dr. Mahmoud Ghofrani",coverURL:"https://cdn.intechopen.com/books/images_new/10597.jpg",editedByType:null,editors:[{id:"183482",title:"Dr.",name:"Mahmoud",surname:"Ghofrani",slug:"mahmoud-ghofrani",fullName:"Mahmoud Ghofrani"}],productType:{id:"1",chapterContentType:"chapter",authoredCaption:"Edited by"}},{type:"book",id:"10412",title:"Transition Metals",subtitle:null,isOpenForSubmission:!0,hash:"bd7287b801dc0ac77e01f66842dc1d99",slug:null,bookSignature:"Dr. Sajjad Haider and Dr. Adnan Haider",coverURL:"https://cdn.intechopen.com/books/images_new/10412.jpg",editedByType:null,editors:[{id:"110708",title:"Dr.",name:"Sajjad",surname:"Haider",slug:"sajjad-haider",fullName:"Sajjad Haider"}],productType:{id:"1",chapterContentType:"chapter",authoredCaption:"Edited by"}},{type:"book",id:"10216",title:"Paraffin - Thermal Energy Storage Applications",subtitle:null,isOpenForSubmission:!0,hash:"456090b63f5ba2290e24e655abd119bf",slug:null,bookSignature:"Dr. Elsayed Zaki and Dr. Abdelghaffar S. Dhmees",coverURL:"https://cdn.intechopen.com/books/images_new/10216.jpg",editedByType:null,editors:[{id:"220156",title:"Dr.",name:"Elsayed",surname:"Zaki",slug:"elsayed-zaki",fullName:"Elsayed Zaki"}],productType:{id:"1",chapterContentType:"chapter",authoredCaption:"Edited by"}},{type:"book",id:"10506",title:"Liquid Metals",subtitle:null,isOpenForSubmission:!0,hash:"a1c30d83631953e1c8905554d937bb10",slug:null,bookSignature:"Dr. Samson Jerold Samuel Chelladurai, Dr. S. Gnanasekaran and Dr. Suresh Mayilswamy",coverURL:"https://cdn.intechopen.com/books/images_new/10506.jpg",editedByType:null,editors:[{id:"247421",title:"Dr.",name:"Samson Jerold Samuel",surname:"Chelladurai",slug:"samson-jerold-samuel-chelladurai",fullName:"Samson Jerold Samuel Chelladurai"}],productType:{id:"1",chapterContentType:"chapter",authoredCaption:"Edited by"}},{type:"book",id:"10491",title:"Anaerobic Digestion in Natural and Built Environments",subtitle:null,isOpenForSubmission:!0,hash:"082ec753a05d6c7ed8cc5559e7dac432",slug:null,bookSignature:"Dr. Anna Sikora and Dr. Anna Detman",coverURL:"https://cdn.intechopen.com/books/images_new/10491.jpg",editedByType:null,editors:[{id:"146985",title:"Dr.",name:"Anna",surname:"Sikora",slug:"anna-sikora",fullName:"Anna Sikora"}],productType:{id:"1",chapterContentType:"chapter",authoredCaption:"Edited by"}},{type:"book",id:"10573",title:"Fluid-Structure Interaction",subtitle:null,isOpenForSubmission:!0,hash:"3950d1f9c82160d23bc594d00ec2ffbb",slug:null,bookSignature:"Dr. Khaled Ghaedi",coverURL:"https://cdn.intechopen.com/books/images_new/10573.jpg",editedByType:null,editors:[{id:"190572",title:"Dr.",name:"Khaled",surname:"Ghaedi",slug:"khaled-ghaedi",fullName:"Khaled Ghaedi"}],productType:{id:"1",chapterContentType:"chapter",authoredCaption:"Edited by"}},{type:"book",id:"10590",title:"Humic Substance",subtitle:null,isOpenForSubmission:!0,hash:"85786eb36b3e13979aae664a4e046625",slug:null,bookSignature:"Prof. Abdelhadi Makan",coverURL:"https://cdn.intechopen.com/books/images_new/10590.jpg",editedByType:null,editors:[{id:"247727",title:"Prof.",name:"Abdelhadi",surname:"Makan",slug:"abdelhadi-makan",fullName:"Abdelhadi Makan"}],productType:{id:"1",chapterContentType:"chapter",authoredCaption:"Edited by"}},{type:"book",id:"10609",title:"Zeolites",subtitle:null,isOpenForSubmission:!0,hash:"90681a8fef45a03f68f4b9276acba2d3",slug:null,bookSignature:"Dr. Pavel Krivenko",coverURL:"https://cdn.intechopen.com/books/images_new/10609.jpg",editedByType:null,editors:[{id:"180922",title:"Dr.",name:"Pavel",surname:"Krivenko",slug:"pavel-krivenko",fullName:"Pavel Krivenko"}],productType:{id:"1",chapterContentType:"chapter",authoredCaption:"Edited by"}},{type:"book",id:"10495",title:"Insights Into Global Engineering Education After the Birth of Industry 5.0",subtitle:null,isOpenForSubmission:!0,hash:"e83ddb1aa8017926d0635bbe8a90feca",slug:null,bookSignature:"Dr.Ing. Montaha Bouezzeddine",coverURL:"https://cdn.intechopen.com/books/images_new/10495.jpg",editedByType:null,editors:[{id:"313464",title:"Dr.Ing.",name:"Montaha",surname:"Bouezzeddine",slug:"montaha-bouezzeddine",fullName:"Montaha Bouezzeddine"}],productType:{id:"1",chapterContentType:"chapter",authoredCaption:"Edited by"}},{type:"book",id:"10502",title:"Aflatoxins",subtitle:null,isOpenForSubmission:!0,hash:"34fe61c309f2405130ede7a267cf8bd5",slug:null,bookSignature:"Dr. Lukman Bola Abdulra'uf",coverURL:"https://cdn.intechopen.com/books/images_new/10502.jpg",editedByType:null,editors:[{id:"149347",title:"Dr.",name:"Lukman",surname:"Abdulra'uf",slug:"lukman-abdulra'uf",fullName:"Lukman Abdulra'uf"}],productType:{id:"1",chapterContentType:"chapter",authoredCaption:"Edited by"}}],filtersByTopic:[{group:"topic",caption:"Agricultural and Biological Sciences",value:5,count:10},{group:"topic",caption:"Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology",value:6,count:14},{group:"topic",caption:"Business, Management and Economics",value:7,count:2},{group:"topic",caption:"Chemistry",value:8,count:6},{group:"topic",caption:"Computer and Information Science",value:9,count:10},{group:"topic",caption:"Earth and Planetary Sciences",value:10,count:4},{group:"topic",caption:"Engineering",value:11,count:15},{group:"topic",caption:"Environmental Sciences",value:12,count:2},{group:"topic",caption:"Immunology and Microbiology",value:13,count:4},{group:"topic",caption:"Materials Science",value:14,count:5},{group:"topic",caption:"Mathematics",value:15,count:1},{group:"topic",caption:"Medicine",value:16,count:55},{group:"topic",caption:"Neuroscience",value:18,count:1},{group:"topic",caption:"Pharmacology, Toxicology and Pharmaceutical Science",value:19,count:5},{group:"topic",caption:"Physics",value:20,count:2},{group:"topic",caption:"Psychology",value:21,count:3},{group:"topic",caption:"Robotics",value:22,count:1},{group:"topic",caption:"Social Sciences",value:23,count:3},{group:"topic",caption:"Technology",value:24,count:1},{group:"topic",caption:"Veterinary Medicine and Science",value:25,count:2}],offset:12,limit:12,total:28},popularBooks:{featuredBooks:[{type:"book",id:"7802",title:"Modern Slavery and Human Trafficking",subtitle:null,isOpenForSubmission:!1,hash:"587a0b7fb765f31cc98de33c6c07c2e0",slug:"modern-slavery-and-human-trafficking",bookSignature:"Jane Reeves",coverURL:"https://cdn.intechopen.com/books/images_new/7802.jpg",editors:[{id:"211328",title:"Prof.",name:"Jane",middleName:null,surname:"Reeves",slug:"jane-reeves",fullName:"Jane Reeves"}],equalEditorOne:null,equalEditorTwo:null,equalEditorThree:null,productType:{id:"1",chapterContentType:"chapter"}},{type:"book",id:"9961",title:"Data Mining",subtitle:"Methods, Applications and Systems",isOpenForSubmission:!1,hash:"ed79fb6364f2caf464079f94a0387146",slug:"data-mining-methods-applications-and-systems",bookSignature:"Derya Birant",coverURL:"https://cdn.intechopen.com/books/images_new/9961.jpg",editors:[{id:"15609",title:"Dr.",name:"Derya",middleName:null,surname:"Birant",slug:"derya-birant",fullName:"Derya Birant"}],equalEditorOne:null,equalEditorTwo:null,equalEditorThree:null,productType:{id:"1",chapterContentType:"chapter"}},{type:"book",id:"8545",title:"Animal Reproduction in Veterinary Medicine",subtitle:null,isOpenForSubmission:!1,hash:"13aaddf5fdbbc78387e77a7da2388bf6",slug:"animal-reproduction-in-veterinary-medicine",bookSignature:"Faruk Aral, Rita Payan-Carreira and Miguel Quaresma",coverURL:"https://cdn.intechopen.com/books/images_new/8545.jpg",editors:[{id:"25600",title:"Prof.",name:"Faruk",middleName:null,surname:"Aral",slug:"faruk-aral",fullName:"Faruk Aral"}],equalEditorOne:null,equalEditorTwo:null,equalEditorThree:null,productType:{id:"1",chapterContentType:"chapter"}},{type:"book",id:"9157",title:"Neurodegenerative Diseases",subtitle:"Molecular Mechanisms and Current Therapeutic Approaches",isOpenForSubmission:!1,hash:"bc8be577966ef88735677d7e1e92ed28",slug:"neurodegenerative-diseases-molecular-mechanisms-and-current-therapeutic-approaches",bookSignature:"Nagehan Ersoy Tunalı",coverURL:"https://cdn.intechopen.com/books/images_new/9157.jpg",editors:[{id:"82778",title:"Ph.D.",name:"Nagehan",middleName:null,surname:"Ersoy Tunalı",slug:"nagehan-ersoy-tunali",fullName:"Nagehan Ersoy Tunalı"}],equalEditorOne:null,equalEditorTwo:null,equalEditorThree:null,productType:{id:"1",chapterContentType:"chapter"}},{type:"book",id:"8686",title:"Direct Torque Control Strategies of Electrical Machines",subtitle:null,isOpenForSubmission:!1,hash:"b6ad22b14db2b8450228545d3d4f6b1a",slug:"direct-torque-control-strategies-of-electrical-machines",bookSignature:"Fatma Ben Salem",coverURL:"https://cdn.intechopen.com/books/images_new/8686.jpg",editors:[{id:"295623",title:"Associate Prof.",name:"Fatma",middleName:null,surname:"Ben Salem",slug:"fatma-ben-salem",fullName:"Fatma Ben Salem"}],equalEditorOne:null,equalEditorTwo:null,equalEditorThree:null,productType:{id:"1",chapterContentType:"chapter"}},{type:"book",id:"7434",title:"Molecular Biotechnology",subtitle:null,isOpenForSubmission:!1,hash:"eceede809920e1ec7ecadd4691ede2ec",slug:"molecular-biotechnology",bookSignature:"Sergey Sedykh",coverURL:"https://cdn.intechopen.com/books/images_new/7434.jpg",editors:[{id:"178316",title:"Ph.D.",name:"Sergey",middleName:null,surname:"Sedykh",slug:"sergey-sedykh",fullName:"Sergey Sedykh"}],equalEditorOne:null,equalEditorTwo:null,equalEditorThree:null,productType:{id:"1",chapterContentType:"chapter"}},{type:"book",id:"9208",title:"Welding",subtitle:"Modern Topics",isOpenForSubmission:!1,hash:"7d6be076ccf3a3f8bd2ca52d86d4506b",slug:"welding-modern-topics",bookSignature:"Sadek Crisóstomo Absi Alfaro, Wojciech Borek and Błażej Tomiczek",coverURL:"https://cdn.intechopen.com/books/images_new/9208.jpg",editors:[{id:"65292",title:"Prof.",name:"Sadek Crisostomo Absi",middleName:"C. Absi",surname:"Alfaro",slug:"sadek-crisostomo-absi-alfaro",fullName:"Sadek Crisostomo Absi Alfaro"}],equalEditorOne:null,equalEditorTwo:null,equalEditorThree:null,productType:{id:"1",chapterContentType:"chapter"}},{type:"book",id:"7831",title:"Sustainability in Urban Planning and Design",subtitle:null,isOpenForSubmission:!1,hash:"c924420492c8c2c9751e178d025f4066",slug:"sustainability-in-urban-planning-and-design",bookSignature:"Amjad Almusaed, Asaad Almssad and Linh Truong - Hong",coverURL:"https://cdn.intechopen.com/books/images_new/7831.jpg",editors:[{id:"110471",title:"Dr.",name:"Amjad",middleName:"Zaki",surname:"Almusaed",slug:"amjad-almusaed",fullName:"Amjad Almusaed"}],equalEditorOne:null,equalEditorTwo:null,equalEditorThree:null,productType:{id:"1",chapterContentType:"chapter"}},{type:"book",id:"9343",title:"Trace Metals in the Environment",subtitle:"New Approaches and Recent Advances",isOpenForSubmission:!1,hash:"ae07e345bc2ce1ebbda9f70c5cd12141",slug:"trace-metals-in-the-environment-new-approaches-and-recent-advances",bookSignature:"Mario Alfonso Murillo-Tovar, Hugo Saldarriaga-Noreña and Agnieszka Saeid",coverURL:"https://cdn.intechopen.com/books/images_new/9343.jpg",editors:[{id:"255959",title:"Dr.",name:"Mario Alfonso",middleName:null,surname:"Murillo-Tovar",slug:"mario-alfonso-murillo-tovar",fullName:"Mario Alfonso Murillo-Tovar"}],equalEditorOne:null,equalEditorTwo:null,equalEditorThree:null,productType:{id:"1",chapterContentType:"chapter"}},{type:"book",id:"9139",title:"Topics in Primary Care Medicine",subtitle:null,isOpenForSubmission:!1,hash:"ea774a4d4c1179da92a782e0ae9cde92",slug:"topics-in-primary-care-medicine",bookSignature:"Thomas F. Heston",coverURL:"https://cdn.intechopen.com/books/images_new/9139.jpg",editors:[{id:"217926",title:"Dr.",name:"Thomas F.",middleName:null,surname:"Heston",slug:"thomas-f.-heston",fullName:"Thomas F. Heston"}],equalEditorOne:null,equalEditorTwo:null,equalEditorThree:null,productType:{id:"1",chapterContentType:"chapter"}},{type:"book",id:"9839",title:"Outdoor Recreation",subtitle:"Physiological and Psychological Effects on Health",isOpenForSubmission:!1,hash:"5f5a0d64267e32567daffa5b0c6a6972",slug:"outdoor-recreation-physiological-and-psychological-effects-on-health",bookSignature:"Hilde G. Nielsen",coverURL:"https://cdn.intechopen.com/books/images_new/9839.jpg",editors:[{id:"158692",title:"Ph.D.",name:"Hilde G.",middleName:null,surname:"Nielsen",slug:"hilde-g.-nielsen",fullName:"Hilde G. Nielsen"}],equalEditorOne:null,equalEditorTwo:null,equalEditorThree:null,productType:{id:"1",chapterContentType:"chapter"}},{type:"book",id:"8697",title:"Virtual Reality and Its Application in Education",subtitle:null,isOpenForSubmission:!1,hash:"ee01b5e387ba0062c6b0d1e9227bda05",slug:"virtual-reality-and-its-application-in-education",bookSignature:"Dragan Cvetković",coverURL:"https://cdn.intechopen.com/books/images_new/8697.jpg",editors:[{id:"101330",title:"Dr.",name:"Dragan",middleName:"Mladen",surname:"Cvetković",slug:"dragan-cvetkovic",fullName:"Dragan Cvetković"}],equalEditorOne:null,equalEditorTwo:null,equalEditorThree:null,productType:{id:"1",chapterContentType:"chapter"}}],offset:12,limit:12,total:5150},hotBookTopics:{hotBooks:[],offset:0,limit:12,total:null},publish:{},publishingProposal:{success:null,errors:{}},books:{featuredBooks:[{type:"book",id:"7802",title:"Modern Slavery and Human Trafficking",subtitle:null,isOpenForSubmission:!1,hash:"587a0b7fb765f31cc98de33c6c07c2e0",slug:"modern-slavery-and-human-trafficking",bookSignature:"Jane Reeves",coverURL:"https://cdn.intechopen.com/books/images_new/7802.jpg",editors:[{id:"211328",title:"Prof.",name:"Jane",middleName:null,surname:"Reeves",slug:"jane-reeves",fullName:"Jane Reeves"}],equalEditorOne:null,equalEditorTwo:null,equalEditorThree:null,productType:{id:"1",chapterContentType:"chapter"}},{type:"book",id:"9961",title:"Data Mining",subtitle:"Methods, Applications and Systems",isOpenForSubmission:!1,hash:"ed79fb6364f2caf464079f94a0387146",slug:"data-mining-methods-applications-and-systems",bookSignature:"Derya Birant",coverURL:"https://cdn.intechopen.com/books/images_new/9961.jpg",editors:[{id:"15609",title:"Dr.",name:"Derya",middleName:null,surname:"Birant",slug:"derya-birant",fullName:"Derya Birant"}],equalEditorOne:null,equalEditorTwo:null,equalEditorThree:null,productType:{id:"1",chapterContentType:"chapter"}},{type:"book",id:"8545",title:"Animal Reproduction in Veterinary Medicine",subtitle:null,isOpenForSubmission:!1,hash:"13aaddf5fdbbc78387e77a7da2388bf6",slug:"animal-reproduction-in-veterinary-medicine",bookSignature:"Faruk Aral, Rita Payan-Carreira and Miguel Quaresma",coverURL:"https://cdn.intechopen.com/books/images_new/8545.jpg",editors:[{id:"25600",title:"Prof.",name:"Faruk",middleName:null,surname:"Aral",slug:"faruk-aral",fullName:"Faruk Aral"}],equalEditorOne:null,equalEditorTwo:null,equalEditorThree:null,productType:{id:"1",chapterContentType:"chapter"}},{type:"book",id:"9157",title:"Neurodegenerative Diseases",subtitle:"Molecular Mechanisms and Current Therapeutic Approaches",isOpenForSubmission:!1,hash:"bc8be577966ef88735677d7e1e92ed28",slug:"neurodegenerative-diseases-molecular-mechanisms-and-current-therapeutic-approaches",bookSignature:"Nagehan Ersoy Tunalı",coverURL:"https://cdn.intechopen.com/books/images_new/9157.jpg",editors:[{id:"82778",title:"Ph.D.",name:"Nagehan",middleName:null,surname:"Ersoy Tunalı",slug:"nagehan-ersoy-tunali",fullName:"Nagehan Ersoy Tunalı"}],equalEditorOne:null,equalEditorTwo:null,equalEditorThree:null,productType:{id:"1",chapterContentType:"chapter"}},{type:"book",id:"8686",title:"Direct Torque Control Strategies of Electrical Machines",subtitle:null,isOpenForSubmission:!1,hash:"b6ad22b14db2b8450228545d3d4f6b1a",slug:"direct-torque-control-strategies-of-electrical-machines",bookSignature:"Fatma Ben Salem",coverURL:"https://cdn.intechopen.com/books/images_new/8686.jpg",editors:[{id:"295623",title:"Associate Prof.",name:"Fatma",middleName:null,surname:"Ben Salem",slug:"fatma-ben-salem",fullName:"Fatma Ben Salem"}],equalEditorOne:null,equalEditorTwo:null,equalEditorThree:null,productType:{id:"1",chapterContentType:"chapter"}},{type:"book",id:"7434",title:"Molecular Biotechnology",subtitle:null,isOpenForSubmission:!1,hash:"eceede809920e1ec7ecadd4691ede2ec",slug:"molecular-biotechnology",bookSignature:"Sergey Sedykh",coverURL:"https://cdn.intechopen.com/books/images_new/7434.jpg",editors:[{id:"178316",title:"Ph.D.",name:"Sergey",middleName:null,surname:"Sedykh",slug:"sergey-sedykh",fullName:"Sergey Sedykh"}],equalEditorOne:null,equalEditorTwo:null,equalEditorThree:null,productType:{id:"1",chapterContentType:"chapter"}},{type:"book",id:"9208",title:"Welding",subtitle:"Modern Topics",isOpenForSubmission:!1,hash:"7d6be076ccf3a3f8bd2ca52d86d4506b",slug:"welding-modern-topics",bookSignature:"Sadek Crisóstomo Absi Alfaro, Wojciech Borek and Błażej Tomiczek",coverURL:"https://cdn.intechopen.com/books/images_new/9208.jpg",editors:[{id:"65292",title:"Prof.",name:"Sadek Crisostomo Absi",middleName:"C. Absi",surname:"Alfaro",slug:"sadek-crisostomo-absi-alfaro",fullName:"Sadek Crisostomo Absi Alfaro"}],equalEditorOne:null,equalEditorTwo:null,equalEditorThree:null,productType:{id:"1",chapterContentType:"chapter"}},{type:"book",id:"7831",title:"Sustainability in Urban Planning and Design",subtitle:null,isOpenForSubmission:!1,hash:"c924420492c8c2c9751e178d025f4066",slug:"sustainability-in-urban-planning-and-design",bookSignature:"Amjad Almusaed, Asaad Almssad and Linh Truong - Hong",coverURL:"https://cdn.intechopen.com/books/images_new/7831.jpg",editors:[{id:"110471",title:"Dr.",name:"Amjad",middleName:"Zaki",surname:"Almusaed",slug:"amjad-almusaed",fullName:"Amjad Almusaed"}],equalEditorOne:null,equalEditorTwo:null,equalEditorThree:null,productType:{id:"1",chapterContentType:"chapter"}},{type:"book",id:"9343",title:"Trace Metals in the Environment",subtitle:"New Approaches and Recent Advances",isOpenForSubmission:!1,hash:"ae07e345bc2ce1ebbda9f70c5cd12141",slug:"trace-metals-in-the-environment-new-approaches-and-recent-advances",bookSignature:"Mario Alfonso Murillo-Tovar, Hugo Saldarriaga-Noreña and Agnieszka Saeid",coverURL:"https://cdn.intechopen.com/books/images_new/9343.jpg",editors:[{id:"255959",title:"Dr.",name:"Mario Alfonso",middleName:null,surname:"Murillo-Tovar",slug:"mario-alfonso-murillo-tovar",fullName:"Mario Alfonso Murillo-Tovar"}],equalEditorOne:null,equalEditorTwo:null,equalEditorThree:null,productType:{id:"1",chapterContentType:"chapter"}},{type:"book",id:"9139",title:"Topics in Primary Care Medicine",subtitle:null,isOpenForSubmission:!1,hash:"ea774a4d4c1179da92a782e0ae9cde92",slug:"topics-in-primary-care-medicine",bookSignature:"Thomas F. Heston",coverURL:"https://cdn.intechopen.com/books/images_new/9139.jpg",editors:[{id:"217926",title:"Dr.",name:"Thomas F.",middleName:null,surname:"Heston",slug:"thomas-f.-heston",fullName:"Thomas F. Heston"}],equalEditorOne:null,equalEditorTwo:null,equalEditorThree:null,productType:{id:"1",chapterContentType:"chapter"}}],latestBooks:[{type:"book",id:"7434",title:"Molecular Biotechnology",subtitle:null,isOpenForSubmission:!1,hash:"eceede809920e1ec7ecadd4691ede2ec",slug:"molecular-biotechnology",bookSignature:"Sergey Sedykh",coverURL:"https://cdn.intechopen.com/books/images_new/7434.jpg",editedByType:"Edited by",editors:[{id:"178316",title:"Ph.D.",name:"Sergey",middleName:null,surname:"Sedykh",slug:"sergey-sedykh",fullName:"Sergey Sedykh"}],equalEditorOne:null,equalEditorTwo:null,equalEditorThree:null,productType:{id:"1",chapterContentType:"chapter",authoredCaption:"Edited by"}},{type:"book",id:"8545",title:"Animal Reproduction in Veterinary Medicine",subtitle:null,isOpenForSubmission:!1,hash:"13aaddf5fdbbc78387e77a7da2388bf6",slug:"animal-reproduction-in-veterinary-medicine",bookSignature:"Faruk Aral, Rita Payan-Carreira and Miguel Quaresma",coverURL:"https://cdn.intechopen.com/books/images_new/8545.jpg",editedByType:"Edited by",editors:[{id:"25600",title:"Prof.",name:"Faruk",middleName:null,surname:"Aral",slug:"faruk-aral",fullName:"Faruk Aral"}],equalEditorOne:null,equalEditorTwo:null,equalEditorThree:null,productType:{id:"1",chapterContentType:"chapter",authoredCaption:"Edited by"}},{type:"book",id:"9569",title:"Methods in Molecular Medicine",subtitle:null,isOpenForSubmission:!1,hash:"691d3f3c4ac25a8093414e9b270d2843",slug:"methods-in-molecular-medicine",bookSignature:"Yusuf Tutar",coverURL:"https://cdn.intechopen.com/books/images_new/9569.jpg",editedByType:"Edited by",editors:[{id:"158492",title:"Prof.",name:"Yusuf",middleName:null,surname:"Tutar",slug:"yusuf-tutar",fullName:"Yusuf Tutar"}],equalEditorOne:null,equalEditorTwo:null,equalEditorThree:null,productType:{id:"1",chapterContentType:"chapter",authoredCaption:"Edited by"}},{type:"book",id:"9839",title:"Outdoor Recreation",subtitle:"Physiological and Psychological Effects on Health",isOpenForSubmission:!1,hash:"5f5a0d64267e32567daffa5b0c6a6972",slug:"outdoor-recreation-physiological-and-psychological-effects-on-health",bookSignature:"Hilde G. Nielsen",coverURL:"https://cdn.intechopen.com/books/images_new/9839.jpg",editedByType:"Edited by",editors:[{id:"158692",title:"Ph.D.",name:"Hilde G.",middleName:null,surname:"Nielsen",slug:"hilde-g.-nielsen",fullName:"Hilde G. Nielsen"}],equalEditorOne:null,equalEditorTwo:null,equalEditorThree:null,productType:{id:"1",chapterContentType:"chapter",authoredCaption:"Edited by"}},{type:"book",id:"7802",title:"Modern Slavery and Human Trafficking",subtitle:null,isOpenForSubmission:!1,hash:"587a0b7fb765f31cc98de33c6c07c2e0",slug:"modern-slavery-and-human-trafficking",bookSignature:"Jane Reeves",coverURL:"https://cdn.intechopen.com/books/images_new/7802.jpg",editedByType:"Edited by",editors:[{id:"211328",title:"Prof.",name:"Jane",middleName:null,surname:"Reeves",slug:"jane-reeves",fullName:"Jane Reeves"}],equalEditorOne:null,equalEditorTwo:null,equalEditorThree:null,productType:{id:"1",chapterContentType:"chapter",authoredCaption:"Edited by"}},{type:"book",id:"8063",title:"Food Security in Africa",subtitle:null,isOpenForSubmission:!1,hash:"8cbf3d662b104d19db2efc9d59249efc",slug:"food-security-in-africa",bookSignature:"Barakat Mahmoud",coverURL:"https://cdn.intechopen.com/books/images_new/8063.jpg",editedByType:"Edited by",editors:[{id:"92016",title:"Dr.",name:"Barakat",middleName:null,surname:"Mahmoud",slug:"barakat-mahmoud",fullName:"Barakat Mahmoud"}],equalEditorOne:null,equalEditorTwo:null,equalEditorThree:null,productType:{id:"1",chapterContentType:"chapter",authoredCaption:"Edited by"}},{type:"book",id:"10118",title:"Plant Stress Physiology",subtitle:null,isOpenForSubmission:!1,hash:"c68b09d2d2634fc719ae3b9a64a27839",slug:"plant-stress-physiology",bookSignature:"Akbar Hossain",coverURL:"https://cdn.intechopen.com/books/images_new/10118.jpg",editedByType:"Edited by",editors:[{id:"280755",title:"Dr.",name:"Akbar",middleName:null,surname:"Hossain",slug:"akbar-hossain",fullName:"Akbar Hossain"}],equalEditorOne:null,equalEditorTwo:null,equalEditorThree:null,productType:{id:"1",chapterContentType:"chapter",authoredCaption:"Edited by"}},{type:"book",id:"9157",title:"Neurodegenerative Diseases",subtitle:"Molecular Mechanisms and Current Therapeutic Approaches",isOpenForSubmission:!1,hash:"bc8be577966ef88735677d7e1e92ed28",slug:"neurodegenerative-diseases-molecular-mechanisms-and-current-therapeutic-approaches",bookSignature:"Nagehan Ersoy Tunalı",coverURL:"https://cdn.intechopen.com/books/images_new/9157.jpg",editedByType:"Edited by",editors:[{id:"82778",title:"Ph.D.",name:"Nagehan",middleName:null,surname:"Ersoy Tunalı",slug:"nagehan-ersoy-tunali",fullName:"Nagehan Ersoy Tunalı"}],equalEditorOne:null,equalEditorTwo:null,equalEditorThree:null,productType:{id:"1",chapterContentType:"chapter",authoredCaption:"Edited by"}},{type:"book",id:"9961",title:"Data Mining",subtitle:"Methods, Applications and Systems",isOpenForSubmission:!1,hash:"ed79fb6364f2caf464079f94a0387146",slug:"data-mining-methods-applications-and-systems",bookSignature:"Derya Birant",coverURL:"https://cdn.intechopen.com/books/images_new/9961.jpg",editedByType:"Edited by",editors:[{id:"15609",title:"Dr.",name:"Derya",middleName:null,surname:"Birant",slug:"derya-birant",fullName:"Derya Birant"}],equalEditorOne:null,equalEditorTwo:null,equalEditorThree:null,productType:{id:"1",chapterContentType:"chapter",authoredCaption:"Edited by"}},{type:"book",id:"8686",title:"Direct Torque Control Strategies of Electrical Machines",subtitle:null,isOpenForSubmission:!1,hash:"b6ad22b14db2b8450228545d3d4f6b1a",slug:"direct-torque-control-strategies-of-electrical-machines",bookSignature:"Fatma Ben Salem",coverURL:"https://cdn.intechopen.com/books/images_new/8686.jpg",editedByType:"Edited by",editors:[{id:"295623",title:"Associate Prof.",name:"Fatma",middleName:null,surname:"Ben Salem",slug:"fatma-ben-salem",fullName:"Fatma Ben Salem"}],equalEditorOne:null,equalEditorTwo:null,equalEditorThree:null,productType:{id:"1",chapterContentType:"chapter",authoredCaption:"Edited by"}}]},subject:{topic:{id:"693",title:"Environmental Biotechnology",slug:"environmental-biotechnology",parent:{title:"Biomedical Engineering",slug:"engineering-biomedical-engineering"},numberOfBooks:2,numberOfAuthorsAndEditors:131,numberOfWosCitations:274,numberOfCrossrefCitations:119,numberOfDimensionsCitations:400,videoUrl:null,fallbackUrl:null,description:null},booksByTopicFilter:{topicSlug:"environmental-biotechnology",sort:"-publishedDate",limit:12,offset:0},booksByTopicCollection:[{type:"book",id:"3484",title:"State of the Art in Biosensors",subtitle:"Environmental and Medical Applications",isOpenForSubmission:!1,hash:"b84ae4104612ff69dc3061cf297137f7",slug:"state-of-the-art-in-biosensors-environmental-and-medical-applications",bookSignature:"Toonika Rinken",coverURL:"https://cdn.intechopen.com/books/images_new/3484.jpg",editedByType:"Edited by",editors:[{id:"24687",title:"Dr.",name:"Toonika",middleName:null,surname:"Rinken",slug:"toonika-rinken",fullName:"Toonika Rinken"}],equalEditorOne:null,equalEditorTwo:null,equalEditorThree:null,productType:{id:"1",chapterContentType:"chapter",authoredCaption:"Edited by"}},{type:"book",id:"248",title:"Progress in Molecular and Environmental Bioengineering",subtitle:"From Analysis and Modeling to Technology Applications",isOpenForSubmission:!1,hash:"941ccb30ccac8ca99435a0e10463278d",slug:"progress-in-molecular-and-environmental-bioengineering-from-analysis-and-modeling-to-technology-applications",bookSignature:"Angelo Carpi",coverURL:"https://cdn.intechopen.com/books/images_new/248.jpg",editedByType:"Edited by",editors:[{id:"58620",title:"Prof.",name:"Angelo",middleName:null,surname:"Carpi",slug:"angelo-carpi",fullName:"Angelo Carpi"}],equalEditorOne:null,equalEditorTwo:null,equalEditorThree:null,productType:{id:"1",chapterContentType:"chapter",authoredCaption:"Edited by"}}],booksByTopicTotal:2,mostCitedChapters:[{id:"17237",doi:"10.5772/24553",title:"Hydrogels: Methods of Preparation, Characterisation and Applications",slug:"hydrogels-methods-of-preparation-characterisation-and-applications",totalDownloads:64145,totalCrossrefCites:58,totalDimensionsCites:205,book:{slug:"progress-in-molecular-and-environmental-bioengineering-from-analysis-and-modeling-to-technology-applications",title:"Progress in Molecular and Environmental Bioengineering",fullTitle:"Progress in Molecular and Environmental Bioengineering - From Analysis and Modeling to Technology Applications"},signatures:"Syed K. H. Gulrez, Saphwan Al-Assaf and Glyn O Phillips",authors:[{id:"58120",title:"Prof.",name:"Saphwan",middleName:null,surname:"Al-Assaf",slug:"saphwan-al-assaf",fullName:"Saphwan Al-Assaf"}]},{id:"17260",doi:"10.5772/19546",title:"Engineering Bacteria for Bioremediation",slug:"engineering-bacteria-for-bioremediation",totalDownloads:16645,totalCrossrefCites:6,totalDimensionsCites:42,book:{slug:"progress-in-molecular-and-environmental-bioengineering-from-analysis-and-modeling-to-technology-applications",title:"Progress in Molecular and Environmental Bioengineering",fullTitle:"Progress in Molecular and Environmental Bioengineering - From Analysis and Modeling to Technology Applications"},signatures:"Elen Aquino Perpetuo, Cleide Barbieri Souza and Claudio Augusto Oller Nascimento",authors:[{id:"35301",title:"Dr.",name:"Elen",middleName:null,surname:"Perpetuo",slug:"elen-perpetuo",fullName:"Elen Perpetuo"},{id:"50350",title:"Prof.",name:"Claudio",middleName:null,surname:"Oller Do Nascimento",slug:"claudio-oller-do-nascimento",fullName:"Claudio Oller Do Nascimento"},{id:"87386",title:"Dr.",name:"Cleide",middleName:null,surname:"Barbieri De Souza",slug:"cleide-barbieri-de-souza",fullName:"Cleide Barbieri De Souza"}]},{id:"17238",doi:"10.5772/22114",title:"Chemical Mediated Synthesis of Silver Nanoparticles and its Potential Antibacterial Application",slug:"chemical-mediated-synthesis-of-silver-nanoparticles-and-its-potential-antibacterial-application",totalDownloads:6391,totalCrossrefCites:7,totalDimensionsCites:18,book:{slug:"progress-in-molecular-and-environmental-bioengineering-from-analysis-and-modeling-to-technology-applications",title:"Progress in Molecular and Environmental Bioengineering",fullTitle:"Progress in Molecular and Environmental Bioengineering - From Analysis and Modeling to Technology Applications"},signatures:"P.Prema",authors:[{id:"46312",title:"Prof.",name:"Paulpandian",middleName:null,surname:"Prema",slug:"paulpandian-prema",fullName:"Paulpandian Prema"}]}],mostDownloadedChaptersLast30Days:[{id:"17237",title:"Hydrogels: Methods of Preparation, Characterisation and Applications",slug:"hydrogels-methods-of-preparation-characterisation-and-applications",totalDownloads:64145,totalCrossrefCites:58,totalDimensionsCites:205,book:{slug:"progress-in-molecular-and-environmental-bioengineering-from-analysis-and-modeling-to-technology-applications",title:"Progress in Molecular and Environmental Bioengineering",fullTitle:"Progress in Molecular and Environmental Bioengineering - From Analysis and Modeling to Technology Applications"},signatures:"Syed K. H. Gulrez, Saphwan Al-Assaf and Glyn O Phillips",authors:[{id:"58120",title:"Prof.",name:"Saphwan",middleName:null,surname:"Al-Assaf",slug:"saphwan-al-assaf",fullName:"Saphwan Al-Assaf"}]},{id:"43616",title:"Amperometric Biosensor for Diagnosis of Disease",slug:"amperometric-biosensor-for-diagnosis-of-disease",totalDownloads:3020,totalCrossrefCites:1,totalDimensionsCites:6,book:{slug:"state-of-the-art-in-biosensors-environmental-and-medical-applications",title:"State of the Art in Biosensors",fullTitle:"State of the Art in Biosensors - Environmental and Medical Applications"},signatures:"Antonio Aparecido Pupim Ferreira, Carolina Venturini Uliana, Michelle de Souza Castilho, Naira Canaverolo Pesquero, Marcos Vinicius Foguel, Glauco Pilon dos Santos, Cecílio Sadao Fugivara, Assis Vicente Benedetti and Hideko Yamanaka",authors:[{id:"41872",title:"Prof.",name:"Assis Vicente",middleName:null,surname:"Benedetti",slug:"assis-vicente-benedetti",fullName:"Assis Vicente Benedetti"},{id:"47494",title:"Prof.",name:"Cecilio",middleName:null,surname:"Sadao Fugivara",slug:"cecilio-sadao-fugivara",fullName:"Cecilio Sadao Fugivara"},{id:"47495",title:"Prof.",name:"Hideko",middleName:null,surname:"Yamanaka",slug:"hideko-yamanaka",fullName:"Hideko Yamanaka"},{id:"164730",title:"MSc.",name:"Marcos Vinicius",middleName:null,surname:"Foguel",slug:"marcos-vinicius-foguel",fullName:"Marcos Vinicius Foguel"},{id:"164731",title:"Dr.",name:"Antonio Aparecido Pupim",middleName:null,surname:"Ferreira",slug:"antonio-aparecido-pupim-ferreira",fullName:"Antonio Aparecido Pupim Ferreira"},{id:"164732",title:"Dr.",name:"Michelle De Souza",middleName:null,surname:"Castilho",slug:"michelle-de-souza-castilho",fullName:"Michelle De Souza Castilho"},{id:"164733",title:"MSc.",name:"Glauco Pilon Dos",middleName:null,surname:"Santos",slug:"glauco-pilon-dos-santos",fullName:"Glauco Pilon Dos Santos"},{id:"164734",title:"MSc.",name:"Carolina Venturini",middleName:null,surname:"Uliana",slug:"carolina-venturini-uliana",fullName:"Carolina Venturini Uliana"},{id:"164735",title:"MSc.",name:"Naira Canaverolo",middleName:null,surname:"Pesquero",slug:"naira-canaverolo-pesquero",fullName:"Naira Canaverolo Pesquero"}]},{id:"43558",title:"Biosensors for Contaminants Monitoring in Food and Environment for Human and Environmental Health",slug:"biosensors-for-contaminants-monitoring-in-food-and-environment-for-human-and-environmental-health",totalDownloads:2918,totalCrossrefCites:8,totalDimensionsCites:16,book:{slug:"state-of-the-art-in-biosensors-environmental-and-medical-applications",title:"State of the Art in Biosensors",fullTitle:"State of the Art in Biosensors - Environmental and Medical Applications"},signatures:"Lívia Maria da Costa Silva, Vânia Paula Salviano dos Santos, Andrea Medeiros Salgado and Karen Signori Pereira",authors:[{id:"37632",title:"Dr.",name:"Andrea",middleName:null,surname:"Medeiros Salgado",slug:"andrea-medeiros-salgado",fullName:"Andrea Medeiros Salgado"}]},{id:"43538",title:"Recent Progress in Optical Biosensors for Environmental Applications",slug:"recent-progress-in-optical-biosensors-for-environmental-applications",totalDownloads:2720,totalCrossrefCites:0,totalDimensionsCites:4,book:{slug:"state-of-the-art-in-biosensors-environmental-and-medical-applications",title:"State of the Art in Biosensors",fullTitle:"State of the Art in Biosensors - Environmental and Medical Applications"},signatures:"Feng Long, Anna Zhu, Chunmei Gu and Hanchang Shi",authors:[{id:"154702",title:"Dr.",name:"Feng",middleName:null,surname:"Long",slug:"feng-long",fullName:"Feng Long"},{id:"155353",title:"Dr.",name:"Chunmei",middleName:null,surname:"Gu",slug:"chunmei-gu",fullName:"Chunmei Gu"},{id:"155354",title:"Prof.",name:"Hanchang",middleName:null,surname:"Shi",slug:"hanchang-shi",fullName:"Hanchang Shi"},{id:"165332",title:"Dr.",name:"Anna",middleName:null,surname:"Zhu",slug:"anna-zhu",fullName:"Anna Zhu"}]},{id:"17241",title:"Bioprocess Design: Fermentation Strategies for Improving the Production of Alginate and Poly-β-Hydroxyalkanoates (PHAs) by Azotobacter vinelandii",slug:"bioprocess-design-fermentation-strategies-for-improving-the-production-of-alginate-and-poly-hydroxya",totalDownloads:4205,totalCrossrefCites:2,totalDimensionsCites:8,book:{slug:"progress-in-molecular-and-environmental-bioengineering-from-analysis-and-modeling-to-technology-applications",title:"Progress in Molecular and Environmental Bioengineering",fullTitle:"Progress in Molecular and Environmental Bioengineering - From Analysis and Modeling to Technology Applications"},signatures:"Carlos Peña, Tania Castillo, Cinthia Núñez and Daniel Segura",authors:[{id:"38725",title:"Dr.",name:"Carlos F",middleName:null,surname:"Peña-Malacara",slug:"carlos-f-pena-malacara",fullName:"Carlos F Peña-Malacara"},{id:"38788",title:"Dr.",name:"Daniel",middleName:null,surname:"Segura-Gonzalez",slug:"daniel-segura-gonzalez",fullName:"Daniel Segura-Gonzalez"},{id:"49334",title:"Dr.",name:"Cinthia",middleName:null,surname:"Nuñez",slug:"cinthia-nunez",fullName:"Cinthia Nuñez"},{id:"62879",title:"MSc",name:"Tania",middleName:null,surname:"Castillo",slug:"tania-castillo",fullName:"Tania Castillo"}]},{id:"17244",title:"Platelet Rich Plasma in Reconstructive Periodontal Therapy",slug:"platelet-rich-plasma-in-reconstructive-periodontal-therapy",totalDownloads:6369,totalCrossrefCites:0,totalDimensionsCites:2,book:{slug:"progress-in-molecular-and-environmental-bioengineering-from-analysis-and-modeling-to-technology-applications",title:"Progress in Molecular and Environmental Bioengineering",fullTitle:"Progress in Molecular and Environmental Bioengineering - From Analysis and Modeling to Technology Applications"},signatures:"Selcuk Yılmaz, Gokser Cakar and Sebnem Dirikan Ipci",authors:[{id:"50002",title:"Prof.",name:"Selcuk",middleName:null,surname:"Yilmaz",slug:"selcuk-yilmaz",fullName:"Selcuk Yilmaz"},{id:"50027",title:"Dr.",name:"Gokser",middleName:null,surname:"Cakar Gurluman",slug:"gokser-cakar-gurluman",fullName:"Gokser Cakar Gurluman"},{id:"50028",title:"Dr.",name:"Sebnem",middleName:null,surname:"Dirikan Ipci",slug:"sebnem-dirikan-ipci",fullName:"Sebnem Dirikan Ipci"}]},{id:"17254",title:"Microalgal Biotechnology and Bioenergy in Dunaliella",slug:"microalgal-biotechnology-and-bioenergy-in-dunaliella",totalDownloads:8219,totalCrossrefCites:3,totalDimensionsCites:15,book:{slug:"progress-in-molecular-and-environmental-bioengineering-from-analysis-and-modeling-to-technology-applications",title:"Progress in Molecular and Environmental Bioengineering",fullTitle:"Progress in Molecular and Environmental Bioengineering - From Analysis and Modeling to Technology Applications"},signatures:"Mansour Shariati and Mohammad Reza Hadi",authors:[{id:"33389",title:"Dr.",name:"Mohammad Reza",middleName:null,surname:"Hadi",slug:"mohammad-reza-hadi",fullName:"Mohammad Reza Hadi"},{id:"33405",title:"Dr.",name:"Mansour",middleName:null,surname:"Shariati",slug:"mansour-shariati",fullName:"Mansour Shariati"}]},{id:"17233",title:"Fractional Kinetics Compartmental Models",slug:"fractional-kinetics-compartmental-models",totalDownloads:2552,totalCrossrefCites:0,totalDimensionsCites:0,book:{slug:"progress-in-molecular-and-environmental-bioengineering-from-analysis-and-modeling-to-technology-applications",title:"Progress in Molecular and Environmental Bioengineering",fullTitle:"Progress in Molecular and Environmental Bioengineering - From Analysis and Modeling to Technology Applications"},signatures:"Davide Verotta",authors:[{id:"34992",title:"Prof.",name:"Davide",middleName:null,surname:"Verotta",slug:"davide-verotta",fullName:"Davide Verotta"}]},{id:"17260",title:"Engineering Bacteria for Bioremediation",slug:"engineering-bacteria-for-bioremediation",totalDownloads:16645,totalCrossrefCites:6,totalDimensionsCites:42,book:{slug:"progress-in-molecular-and-environmental-bioengineering-from-analysis-and-modeling-to-technology-applications",title:"Progress in Molecular and Environmental Bioengineering",fullTitle:"Progress in Molecular and Environmental Bioengineering - From Analysis and Modeling to Technology Applications"},signatures:"Elen Aquino Perpetuo, Cleide Barbieri Souza and Claudio Augusto Oller Nascimento",authors:[{id:"35301",title:"Dr.",name:"Elen",middleName:null,surname:"Perpetuo",slug:"elen-perpetuo",fullName:"Elen Perpetuo"},{id:"50350",title:"Prof.",name:"Claudio",middleName:null,surname:"Oller Do Nascimento",slug:"claudio-oller-do-nascimento",fullName:"Claudio Oller Do Nascimento"},{id:"87386",title:"Dr.",name:"Cleide",middleName:null,surname:"Barbieri De Souza",slug:"cleide-barbieri-de-souza",fullName:"Cleide Barbieri De Souza"}]},{id:"17255",title:"New Trends for Understanding Stability of Biological Materials from Engineering Prospective",slug:"new-trends-for-understanding-stability-of-biological-materials-from-engineering-prospective",totalDownloads:3647,totalCrossrefCites:0,totalDimensionsCites:0,book:{slug:"progress-in-molecular-and-environmental-bioengineering-from-analysis-and-modeling-to-technology-applications",title:"Progress in Molecular and Environmental Bioengineering",fullTitle:"Progress in Molecular and Environmental Bioengineering - From Analysis and Modeling to Technology Applications"},signatures:"Ayman H. Amer Eissa and Abdul Rahman O. Alghannam",authors:[{id:"32499",title:"Prof.",name:"Ayman",middleName:"Hafiz",surname:"Amer Eissa",slug:"ayman-amer-eissa",fullName:"Ayman Amer Eissa"}]}],onlineFirstChaptersFilter:{topicSlug:"environmental-biotechnology",limit:3,offset:0},onlineFirstChaptersCollection:[],onlineFirstChaptersTotal:0},preDownload:{success:null,errors:{}},aboutIntechopen:{},privacyPolicy:{},peerReviewing:{},howOpenAccessPublishingWithIntechopenWorks:{},sponsorshipBooks:{sponsorshipBooks:[{type:"book",id:"10176",title:"Microgrids and Local Energy Systems",subtitle:null,isOpenForSubmission:!0,hash:"c32b4a5351a88f263074b0d0ca813a9c",slug:null,bookSignature:"Prof. Nick Jenkins",coverURL:"https://cdn.intechopen.com/books/images_new/10176.jpg",editedByType:null,editors:[{id:"55219",title:"Prof.",name:"Nick",middleName:null,surname:"Jenkins",slug:"nick-jenkins",fullName:"Nick Jenkins"}],equalEditorOne:null,equalEditorTwo:null,equalEditorThree:null,productType:{id:"1",chapterContentType:"chapter"}}],offset:8,limit:8,total:1},route:{name:"chapter.detail",path:"/books/concepts-applications-and-emerging-opportunities-in-industrial-engineering/exploring-the-project-risk-management-highlighting-the-soft-side-of-project-management",hash:"",query:{},params:{book:"concepts-applications-and-emerging-opportunities-in-industrial-engineering",chapter:"exploring-the-project-risk-management-highlighting-the-soft-side-of-project-management"},fullPath:"/books/concepts-applications-and-emerging-opportunities-in-industrial-engineering/exploring-the-project-risk-management-highlighting-the-soft-side-of-project-management",meta:{},from:{name:null,path:"/",hash:"",query:{},params:{},fullPath:"/",meta:{}}}},function(){var e;(e=document.currentScript||document.scripts[document.scripts.length-1]).parentNode.removeChild(e)}()